iChoose
by phantomavatar08
Summary: When Freddie goes away for a while Carly and Sam have to choose between replacing him or letting iCarly fade away. What happens when their choice affects Carly on a deeper level? Rated for language and future chap. Femslash ahead! Don't like, don't read
1. Freddie's Big News

**Author's Note: Okay guys so it's been a while since I've had time to think up, let alone sit and type, a decent fanfic but, I think I've got a good little story on my mind and well, I was taught to share the good stuff.**

"And we're clear." Who knew such few words could hold the power to change the complete atmosphere of a room.

Not two seconds ago Sam and Carly had been practically bouncing off the walls of the studio, and now they were anything but.

"So that was it then? We're done." The emotion in Carly's voice was evident.

"Guess so." said Freddie.

"Are you sure that was all we had for this episode? Knowing you, dorkus, you might have left something off." Sam said as she frantically looked over their plan again.

"Well?" asked Carly hopefully.

Sam couldn't help the disappointment that creeped into her eyes as she answered, "That was everything."

The trio stood in silence for what seemed ages. It's not that they had nothing to say to each other, actually, it was quite the opposite. They had so much they wanted to say at that very second, that it all went from their mind to their brain stem at once, causing a dam of emotions that prevented the flow of their words.

"Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow Fred-o." Leave it up to Sam to break an otherwise unbreakable silence.

"Uh…Yeah, tomorrow. It's at six….Um, at my place, you know, across the hall."

"Cool," said Sam as she headed for the elevator, "I'll be their at eight." The elevator arrived and as she stepped in, Sam gave one last wave to her friends before the door came down.

"She's not really gonna get their at eight, you know."

"Yeah, Carly, I know. After all these years, I think I've finally learned that there are multiple time zones; there's eastern and central, pacific and Puckett."

They both shared an uneasy chuckle as they made their way down the stairs. Once at the landing they both entered another awkward silence. This one, though didn't last too long.

"Look Mrs. Benson I already told you, I don't know why Freddie is three minutes and twenty-two seconds late from iCarly."

"Spencer Shay don't walk away from me while I'm asking about my Freddie's whereabouts. He's young and impressionable and-"

"Mom!" Freddie cried out. How is it that even at a time like this she somehow managed to embarrass him.

"Fredward Benson where have you been for the past…" she looked down at what appeared to a be a rather large stopwatch, "…three minutes and fifty-four seconds?"

Carly couldn't help herself, "She times you now?"

Freddie looked down at his shoes as he answered. "She usually leaves the stopwatch at home." He started making his way over to his mom. "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow. Let's go mom."

"But you still haven't answered me, what if there's a matter to discuss here?"

Freddie grabbed her by the arm and started to drag her out, "There's nothing to _discuss_, mom. Let's just go. Now. Come. On! Mom!"

Mrs. Benson was still wary of leaving but followed her son out the door and across the hall nonetheless.

As soon as the door closed behind them Spencer asked, "How is she gonna manage the whole…."

"I don't know." was Carly's honest response. "I'm gonna get something to drink."

"Oh try the lemonade. Made it myself. Two cups of sugar, two cups of water, and three cups of lemon extract."

Carly looked up at her brother, "Two cups of sugar and three cups of lemon extract? Are you sure it wasn't the other way around?"

Spencer looked at her dubiously as she made her way to the fridge and then a horrible thought occurred to him.

"You don't think Mrs. Benson will try to hang around here do you?" He turned to Carly, who for some reason now seemed very interested in whatever was in her cup. "Do you?"

"This lemonade smells funny. Have you had any yet?"

"No. Carly seriously do you?"

"Is the smell of citric acid supposed to singe your nostrils?"

Spencer was now very confused. "What? I don't- Carly what's going on?"

Carly put her cup down on the counter and looked up at Spencer. She had that 'One day you'll think this is funny' look on her face. "I might…have 'loaned' her my spare key…"

"Carly you didn't?"

"…and then may have unpurpose-ly said the words 'are', 'welcome', 'anytime', and 'you' in some particular order that currently escapes me."

Spencer had an 'I can't believe you did that' look on his face. "Carly what were you thinking?"

She waved her arms around helplessly, "Oh, I don't know. That she's single and lonely and will probably never find anyone willing to spend more than five minutes in her company unless they're related to her or really, really polite." Then she dropped her arms and huffed up the stairs to her room.

Left alone Spencer walked over to the counter. He could see what his sister meant. He reached for the cup and brought it up to his mouth and immediately put it back down. "Whoa! Ugh! Maybe it was two cups."

**One Week Before:**

"So what are we all doing once the hell-hole known as high school reopens and liberates it's demonic inhabitants, known as teachers, to once again go through their daily ritual of trying to brainwash us into being decent members of society?"

"Sam, I do believe that was the largest number of words to ever, come out of your mouth."

Freddie's insult was met with the same fate all the others did, Sam's payback. It wasn't so much the punch but, the fact that for some odd reason she had been wearing brass knuckles.

Carly walked into the studio a few seconds later, just in time to see Freddie rolling around on the floor clutching his arm for dear life.

"What's he doing down there?" she asked.

"Looking for his dignity." Carly turned to Sam and scowled. Then she noticed something shining on her fist. "Hey what are you doing with…Oh, Sam! You didn't?" Carly dropped down on her knees to help her tech producer.

"What? He insulted me first!"

They were both now on their feet. "That may be so but, you punched his camera arm."

Freddie looked offended, "Hey!…That's also my tech-belt hand." As Freddie went to pat his tech-belt, Sam noticed something shiny sticking out of his pocket.

"Nerd-on-steroids, what's that shining in your pocket? I thought you got rid of your gold plated pocket protector."

Carly looked at him questioningly, "Gold plated pocket protector?"

Freddie looked like a dear caught in the headlights. "Uh… She's lying!"

"No I'm not. You showed it to me last week, said it was one of the best things your mommy had given you."

"Did not."

"Did too. You just won't admit it in front of Carly." she turned to Carly, "He still holding out hope that one day he'll be your second husband."

Freddie's face matched his red shirt. "I am not!…Now I plan to be her third husband. Besides, it's not a pocket protector."

This peaked the girls' interest. Carly asked, "Well, what is it then?"

Freddie looked down at his pocket as he pulled out an envelope. "It's an invitation."

"To what? Join Dorks-R-Us." said Sam.

"No. To take an entrance exam for T.E. Prep."

Carly smiled at him. "T.E. Prep? As in Thomas Edison Preparatory School?"

"Yeah." answered Freddie.

Sam got up from the beanbag. "That's the private school that focus on all things techy isn't it?"

"Yeah." Freddie answered slowly.

"Like I said, Dorks-R-Us."

"Sam cut it out. Freddie that's the school you've been dreaming of going to since you found out it existed."

"Yeah but, my mom could never afford it. Now because of my grades, my A.V. Club record, and my work on iCarly, they're offering me a chance to take the test."

Carly couldn't help but be happy. She went over and hugged Freddie, who, for some reason, wasn't hugging back. Something Sam was only too happy to point out.

"What's up with you? You're usually clambering for any excuse to touch Carly and now that's she's all up on you there's no hugging back?"

"Shut up Sam. Congratulations Freddie. You must be thrilled." Carly pulled back from the hug and came face to face with a rather serious looking Freddie. "What's wrong? You look all 'not so thrilled'."

Freddie looked at the envelope, then back up to his friends. "There's more." The girls looked at him expectantly. "If I happen to score high enough on the exam, the school's willing to give me a full ride scholarship for the entire fall semester."

"And that's a bad thing because?" asked Carly.

"Don't you see?" said Sam. "If he gets into T.E. Prep, he won't be going to school with us. He'll be living on campus wherever the hell that nerd shop is and we'll be here, in Seattle, with no tech producer for iCarly."

Carly suddenly realized exactly what that would mean. "Oh…right…well, that doesn't matter right now."

"But, Carly what ab-"

"No, Sam. It doesn't matter. Right now it's about Freddie, and whatever he chooses is all right with me." She turned to smile at her best friend.

Freddie couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Really? You're okay with this, whatever this turns out to be?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be? This a once in a lifetime opportunity for you. You should go for it."

Even as they made their way down the stairs, Sam still couldn't believe Carly was just taking this in stride.

"I guess I better go home and study some stuff, the test is two days from now." said Freddie.

"Okay Freddie. See you later." responded Carly.

"See ya. Later Sam."

"Yeah, later." As the door closed behind Freddie, Sam grabbed Carly by the shoulders and shook her. "What?!?! 'You should go for it' What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that getting into that school is something _our_ best friend has been wanting to do for, like, ever." Sam let go of her shoulders.

"Don't you care that there won't be any more iCarly?"

Carly looked taken aback. "Of course I care. We've been doing the web show together since seventh grade, that's four years."

"Exactly!"

"But Freddie's been dreaming about T.E. since he first figured out how to work a calculator!"

As much as Sam insulted and degraded Freddie for being a tech nerd, he was their friend, and she knew he was smart. Keeping him in Seattle would be a waste.

"We can't take this away from him Sam."

"You're right. He still has to pass that entrance exam."

Carly raised an eyebrow at that. "You honestly think he won't pass it?"

Sam looked at her sheepishly. "A girl can hope can't she?"

Carly wrapped an arm around Sam's shoulder's as they walked towards the door. "Besides, it's only going to be the fall semester. We'll have our tech producer back by Christmas. iCarly isn't ending it's just going on hiatus for a while."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Aren't I always?" Sam laughed at that one. They said their goodbyes and Carly headed up the stairs to her room.

**Four Days Later:**

"It's here! It's here! Carly! Sam! Spencer! Mom! It's here!" Freddie's frantic words were the first thing heard immediately after the crash of the door.

Carly, Spencer, and Sam-who practically lived there-ran from the kitchen to the Shay's living room.

Mrs. Benson came flying in after Freddie. "Did you get it?"

"Yes, it's here." Freddie held up yet another envelope, similar to the one before.

Carly couldn't take it anymore. "SO? Are you in or not?"

Her friend looked down at his hands and started to open the envelope but, half way through he changed his mind and quickly handed the envelope to Carly. "Here you read it. If it's bad news it'll be easier to take coming from you."

Carly took the envelope with a questioning look on her face. "Why would it be easier coming from me?" Sam stepped in.

"Are you kidding me? You've been turning him down for so long that hearing bad news from you is just something he's used to." piped up Sam.

All it took was Carly's glare to let Sam know now was not the time. "Okay, here goes."

Carly opened the envelope the rest of the way. As she begin pulling the letter out she realized her hands were clammy and starting to shake. She could make the news sound better to Freddie but, who was going to make it better for her? It didn't matter what the letter said, tonight she was going to highly upset.

If Freddie didn't get in, she would he would be disappointed and it would all be her fault for encouraging him in the first place. If he did make it then that would mean no more iCarly. She totally and completely hated herself for going along with this. It seemed forever ago that they had been upstairs talking about punches and dignity.

It only took the rather loud clearing of Mrs. Benson's throat to get Carly to speed it up. She finally got the letter out and begin to read aloud.

"Dear Mr. Benson, it is our complete honor to inform you that not only did you pass but, you got the second highest score in T.E. history. With a wondrous score of ninety percent accuracy, it is our privilege to inform you that a schedule has been worked up and a dorm room assigned. You will find enclosed a copy of said schedule and dorm assignment. For more information please be sure to contact our Dean of Admissions at the number provided below. We look forward to seeing you on campus for orientation on August 31st. With sincere regards, Patrick Evans, Dean of Education."

Carly didn't know how she managed to keep reading after 'it is our complete honor'. She and Sam shared a quick look of disappointment, before joining in the celebration. The look of utter enthusiasm on Freddie's face made it all worth it.

**Present Time:**

It was six and the going away party was just beginning at the Benson's. Even though the guests were just now arriving Sam had already been there for the past three hours.

Freddie kept telling himself it was for the food but, as Carly had so keenly pointed out when she arrived, his mother's cooking wouldn't attract a starving hobo.

"So, how long you plan on keepin' up the party?" asked Sam.

"Just a couple of hours. I have flight to catch later tonight." Freddie answered.

"Wow, leaving already huh?" Carly asked as she came up behind them.

"Yeah, I want to get there early so I don't have to rush to find everything. So what are you guys doing tomorrow?"

"Oh, you know, me and Carly are just gonna go do some last minute shopping for school stuff."

Carly looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you got your stuff last week?"

"I got the essentials. Now I just need to go get some pens and paper."

Freddie and Carly shared a look. "I wish you luck with keeping her in check."

"Yeah, I think I'll need more than luck."

"The National Guard should cover it."

"Watch it Fred-weird. I still have time to rip you a new one."

Over the years Freddie had learned when to stop when it came to Sam. "Okay, I think I'm gonna go talk to Gibby and Spencer over there. Way, way, over there." he said pointing to the farthest corner of room.

* * *

It seemed like two hours had gone by in the blink of an eye. Where they had once been at a raging party, or at least that's what Mrs. Benson had referred to their little meeting as, they were now at the boarding gate for Freddie's flight. Once again they had so much to say, that none of it was coming out. All three just stood there fidgeting with their clothes, shifting their feet, anything but talking to each other.

From off in the distance Mrs. Benson watched on, Spencer beside her. "You don't think they'll spend the entire time just standing there, do you?"

"I don't know Mrs. Benson. It's the first time, in a long time, they've had to say goodbye."

Back at the gate Carly took the initiative. "So, are you going to have a roommate?"

Freddie was caught a little off guard. "Wha- Oh…Um, yeah. Roommate. Right. Um, I'll have one. His name is," he said as he searched for his dorm assignment, "Marcus Tillman."

"Wow, sounds fancy. I wonder if he's a bigger dork than you."

"For an insult, coming from you, that's pretty weak Sam."

"I'm saving the good stuff for when you get back." They all shared a smile. It was the first time Sam hadn't bothered to retort and Freddie was enjoying it. The feeling didn't last too long.

"All passengers of flight 317 to Denver, please begin boarding at gate 1c." The announcement made all three of them cringe just a little. It wasn't the announcement itself, so much as the message it brought with it. Final goodbyes. The inevitable journey had arrived.

"Well, I guess this is it, huh?" Freddie said as people began to show up at the gate.

"Yeah, I guess so." was Carly's simple response.

To everyone's surprise Sam left all insults and comments behind and just wrapped her arms around their best friend. Even more surprising, Freddie hugged her back.

After about three minutes Mrs. Benson showed up and pulled Sam off Freddie, only to hold him in a vice grip herself. "Oh, My baby's all grown up! This is the first time you'll be traveling by yourself. I can't believe you're going so soon. What am I going to do for four months without you? What I you forget your cloud-block?"

"Mom."

"What if you don't get to sit on Santa's lap?"

"Mom!"

"How am I supposed to know if you double pooed?"

"MOM!" Freddie couldn't believe his mom had just said that out loud. "I promise to double shampoo, okay."

"I'm sorry, it's just…" she choked up, "I'm going to miss you so much."

How could he possibly stay mad at her when she was practically falling apart on his shoulder. Besides, he had to admit, "I'm going to miss you too."

She let him go. Freddie felt like a boa had released it's hold on his lungs. He took his breaths in large, greedy gulps. When he finally felt he had returned his brain's oxygen levels to normal, he turned to his friends. "I'm going to miss all my friends…and Sam."

Before Sam could respond, "Last call for passengers for flight 317 to Denver."

Freddie shared one last goodbye with everyone. When he got his mom though, it became pretty obvious she had issues letting go. "Mom, I gotta go. The last few passengers are boarding. Mom!"

"Sorry." she said as she let go of him.

With one last wave Freddie handed his boarding pass to attendant and boarded the plane.

Mrs. Benson just stood in front of the large window, even after the plane had gone.

After about five minutes Sam asked, "Uh, why aren't we going?"

Spencer looked down at her, "Because, she gave us all a ride. Remember?"

"Right."

Sam walked slowly up to Mrs. Benson and reached her hand out even slower. At first Carly just watched in awe. Sam wasn't the one to show emotion, much less compassion. Yet there it was, twice in one day. It wasn't until Sam's hand veered down to the lady's pocket that Carly realized what it was exactly she was playing witness to.

_I knew it was too good to be true._ thought Carly.

Sam came back over to them and shoved Mrs. Benson's keys into Spencer's hand causing him to yelp out in pain. "All right let's roll."


	2. Day Without a TechNerd

**Chapter 2**

It had been two days since Freddie left and the lack of fights to break up was really getting to Carly.

"Why do you have to get along so well with Spencer? Why Can't you pick on him for something?"

They had been sitting on the couch mindlessly watching TV when Carly's outburst had come. Both Sam and Spencer looked at her questioningly.

"Wigging out much?" asked Sam. "I'm bored out of my mind too but you don't see me randomly yelling at people."

"You were yesterday." pointed out Spencer

"Yeah, but then I met up with Gibby and somewhat released the pent up tension."

Carly smiled. "Great! Gibby. Where is he? I'll call him up."

Just as she reached for the phone Sam called out, "I don't think he'll be coming."

Carly put the phone back down. "Why not?" she asked leeringly.

"I may have made him cry...in front of people...that currently attend the second grade...and then, maybe, they may have laughed at him."

"Sam!"

"I'm sorry but with dweebo gone I needed an outlet. Gibby just happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

Spencer couldn't stand to his sister all slumped over and sad looking. He got up and reached into his back pocket. He pulled out his wallet as he walked over to her.

"Here," he said as he handed her his credit card. "Go out and have some fun on me. It's the last day before school starts and I think-"

Before he even had a chance to finish, Sam and Carly were up and out the door.

"-you should go to the mall." He took a deep breath. "I should know by now; speech first, credit card second."

* * *

At the mall Carly was busy dragging Sam from store to store. It wasn't that Sam didn't want to get stuff at other people's expense, she just wanted that stuff to be edible.

"Come on Carls, you've been to every store in the mall twice. I'm hungry!"

Carly turned to look at her. "Hungry? When we came in you headed straight to the food court and hit every stand. Twice!"

Sam pulled up her shirt and rubbed her belly.

"If the tank's empty, the Sam gets cranky."

Carly rolled her eyes. "Oh, alright let's go. And pull down your shirt. You need a tan."

Sam smiled as they walked out of the store. They were making their way to the food court when they heard a commotion coming from the second floor.

"Come back here you damn, juvenile, delinquent!" came the shouts.

"Hey! Watch it!"

"Move it or loose it lady."

Carly was just about to ask what was going on when her answer came in the form of a teenager, in a black hoodie and jeans, rocketing down the up escalator, grinding the rail with nothing but a pair of old Chucks. For show there was a small 360 added at the end. A round of applause and cheer came from the onlookers. The security guard that had put up a chase was stuck at the top landing. He was bent over, breathing a little too hard for the four feet he'd run.

Upon closer inspection of the 'criminal', Carly realized it was a girl.

"Thank you. Thank You." she said as she bowed for the small audience.

The moment of fame was cut short by the sound of running. The walking heart attack had called or backup.

"Next show is at seven. Gotta go!" she said quickly as she started back into a run.

Sam was standing next to Carly cheering her head off. Just as the girl passed by them she locked eyes with Carly. She continued running backwards to keep eye contact. Carly couldn't help but stare back.

"Over there!" "Get her!"

That was all it took to get the girl to break the stare. She turned around and ran for the front door. The security guards ran past the girls about two minutes later.

"What was that about?" asked Sam snapping Carly's attention back to reality.

"Uh, what was what?" asked Carly.

"That." she said as she gestured towards the door.

"What do you mean?" asked Carly smiling.

"Oh, come on. You were totally staring."

"Oh, that." said Carly as a light bulb went off in her head. "Yeah, well, I don't know. She kind of just looked familiar. Like maybe I know her from somewhere."

"Well it's not school. Trust me, I have insulted, degraded, and/or humiliated every person-including staff-at that school, at least once. She has yet to be degraded, humiliated, etc." responded Sam.

"Oh. Well. Sushi or pizza?" asked Carly trying to change the subject.

"Both." answered Sam happily.

As they headed on their way Carly realized exactly what Sam had just said.

"Wait, everyone?" she pondered aloud.

Sam turned and looked at her sheepishly, "You remember a long, long, long, time ago, when you sat down in that purple desk and got up with a purple butt?"

"Yeah," answered Carly slowly.

"Guilty." admitted Sam. "It was way before the tuna sandwich and in my own defense I only knocked off the 'We Paint' sign. I didn't paint it myself or even tell you to site there or anything."

Carly looked at her long and hard. "I had a violet rear end for a week."

"I'm sorry?"

"You're only getting sushi."

"What! Why don't you just paint me in rainbow colors from head to toe and we call it even!" Sam suggested.

"No." said Carly as she walked away.

"Please?"

"No."

"But Car-ly. Please? I want both so much!"

* * *

As both girls walked through the door with armfuls of bags, Spencer noticed Sam looked rather unhappy.

"Um, Sam, buying tons of stuff depressing or something?"

Sam turned eyes blazing.

"Or pissed off, maybe, Carly please save me."

Carly stepped in and turned Sam around. "She's mad because none of the bags are filled with edible materials."

Spencer risked a look at Sam. "Yes...that would upset me too, I guess. So what did you buy?"

Sam pulled out several tops from one bag. "Clothes." She pulled out some jeans from another one. "Clothes." And emptied out a bag of lingerie all over the counter. "And more clothes. You know, things wouldn't have been so bad if if we'd gotten an edible pair of these." She held up some lacy undergarments. "But noooo! Your sister was too embarrassed to ask the saleswoman."

Carly snatched them away from Sam immediately and dumped the rest back into the bag. "That wasn't traumatizing at all. Nope. My brother didn't just see my underwear and **you**, didn't mention edible panties."

Spencer just turned on his heels headed back the living room. Carly followed her brother with her eyes and noticed something in the middle of the room that hadn't been there when she left.

"What is _that_ and what is it doing here?" she asked.

"It's my new sculpture!" said Spencer in a giddy fashion.

Sam came up behind them and saw what they were referring to. "_That_'s your new sculpture?" She said pointing to an apparent pile of scrap metal. "I knew you were in a bit of a slump, but that is just shi-"

"NO, no. That," Spencer points to the pile, "that, yeah, that's not the sculpture. Those are just the materials." He turned to Carly. "Some random guy came up to me and paid two-thousand dollars up front to start a sculpture. He gave me no specifics and promised me another three-thousand when it was complete!"

Sam couldn't believe what she was hearing. "A random guy paid for a random sculpture?!?! Uh, why can't I get random money?"

"Because you lack random talent." laughed Carly.

"Ha-ha. But seriously, that better turn out to be one hell of a sculpture."

"Yeah," said Spencer, "Five-thousand dollars."

"Five-thousand dollars."

"Five. Thousand. Dollars."

All three nodded as it all sunk in.


	3. Return to the Hell Hole Known as School

**Chapter 3**

Carly was walking down the halls of Ridgeway High School, just aimlessly traveling from class to class. History had been a huge borefest and the likelihood of Algebra II being any better was slim to none.

She began thinking about how everyday, between classes, without fail, there had always been a need for her to interfere before Sam murdered Freddie. The thought of Freddie brought thoughts of iCarly. It was at that moment she realized that, this being the first day of her junior year aside, without iCarly rehearsal to look forward to, the day just drug on endlessly. Without iCarly she just didn't quite function the same way.

"Umph!" One second she was walking to her locker, the next she was busting her butt on the linoleum floor. Depression could knock a person down, but this was just nuts.

"Ugh, I don't think my butt's supposed to crunch on impact."

That distinct voice sounded familiar. As Carly leaned up on her elbows she realized why. Crawling to her knees, right in front of her was none other than escalator girl.

Escalator Girl stood up wearily and reached into her back pocket. "Yeah, that's not good."

She pulled out what appeared to be a Pearpod, you know, if you took it and put in the blender, then poured out the contents into the garbage disposal and flipped the switch a couple of times.

"I don't think the warranty mentions 'destruction by ass' anywhere in the fine print."

By the time Carly's brain had regained partial control of her body, Escalator Girl was already bent over her, offering her a hand. "Need a lift?"

Carly reached out a shaky hand. No, not in nerves, in pain. At least that's what she kept telling herself mentally.

Escalator Girl was deceivingly strong. She pulled Carly up in one swift motion that brought them face to face.

_That face is so familiar._ Carly thought. If only she could see her eyes but, alas the only the thing she saw was her own reflection in the girl's shades.

Just as she was about to ask for a name, the bell rang. Kids poured out of classrooms like water through a broke levy. They were soon completely surrounded.

"Well, better get to class. The more people, the higher the likelihood my ass will meet the floor again."

Before Carly could respond in any form or fashion, she was off and into the crowd. When Carly turned back around Sam was standing in front of her. She jumped about three feet in the air.

"Gees!"

"Whoa, what's up with you?"

Carly took yet another moment to gather what she could of her thoughts.

"I just ran into Escalator Girl."

"Really, what she say?"

"Nothing much, because I literally _ran_ _into her_. She wound up on the floor like ten feet away!"

"Oh. I see. Well, where'd she go?"

Carly gestured towards the crowd, "Somewhere in there."

Sam looked off into the crowd just as the minute bell rang. "We have to get class Nancy Drew. If we're late we have to sign the stupid 'sad pad' and I don't need another detention this week."

Carly walked and asked, "Another, you already have one? Sam it's barely second period, on our first day back!"

"Actually in about thirty seconds it's going to be third and I have four."

**

* * *

**

"Okay, so maybe taking all P.E. classes in freshman year would've been better but, you have to admit, those wood shop classes were very productive."

Carly, tired and exasperated, turned to respond, "We never did anything, Mr. Lawson was afraid a pair of girls couldn't handle the power tools and we'd hurt ourselves."

"Exactly! You learned sexism still exists in the modern world and I got extra sleep. Besides, those free hundreds gave our GPA a boost."

Carly just threw her gym bag into the locker and slammed it shut. "You don't even know what GPA stands for, let alone care what happens to yours."

"True and truer."

"Come on we have to get to fifth. What do you have?"

Sam closed her locker and dug in her pockets. Carly just watched as she pulled out a brownie, a Fat Cake, a screwdriver, some beef jerky, and finally her schedule. "There it is. Um...I have multi-media."

"Ooh, who with?"

"Some teacher with a weird, unpronounceable name."

"Yay, so do I."

Both high-fived and headed upstairs.

The trip itself was uneventful but that was quickly fixed when they opened the door to the classroom. There were kids everywhere! In chairs, on tables, on the floor. One was even on the server itself!

They quickly closed the door and looked at each other.

"Schedule change?"

"Schedule change! Fast!" said Carly.

They both practically ran to the counselors office.

**

* * *

**

The second day had been just as uneventful as the first. The monotony of the situation at hand was currently the only thing propelling Carly to her fifth period. She saw Sam coming up the stairs. They had agreed to just meet there after Sam mentioned wanting to stay behind after gym a bit. Carly didn't want to know.

"Alrighty then, that's done." said Sam as she rung out her sleeves. Carly really didn't want to know. "So, what's the teacher's name?" she asked as they sat down at two adjoining computers.

"A. Fairbanks." answered Carly as she stuffed her new schedule back into her bag. "Must be that new teacher they were talking about yesterday."

"Just as long she doesn't turn out to some stuffy old lady like Briggs. You know, I still can't believe they let her transfer to high school. Do they want the high school dropout rate to go up?"

"Nah. I think they just wanted the middle school dropout rate to go down." said Carly.

"Alright class today we're going to go right into photography manipulation, oh wait. I should probably take role first. Other wise the phone will be ringing none stop until I do. Let's see..."

Carly figured the voice belonged to the teacher, Ms. Fairbanks. She didn't sound like a Briggs. The massive computer screen was in the way of getting visual confirmation.

"Well, I see we have two new students today, um, S. Puckett and C. Shay. Alright please stand up and tell us a little bit about your selfs." asked Ms. Fairbanks.

Sam decided to get it over with first. "High my name is Sam and I'm pretty sure that's all I have to say because I bet we've all met at some point or another." There was a soft murmur of agreement. "And by now I'm sure you all know who Carly is." There was a bit of applause. Carly just smiled and waved self-consciously.

"Carly Shay. I knew you were in Seattle but what are the odds you'd end up in my class?" asked Ms. Fairbanks as she stepped out from behind her desk.

Just as Carly was about ask what Ms. Fairbanks meant, she caught her first glimpse of her new teacher and suddenly everything fell into place.

"Alice? Alice Fairbanks?"

"The one and, as far as I know, only."

"Oh my God!" Carly immediately jumped out of her seat and rushed to hug Alice. Alice hugged her back and said, "Wow, you've grown since the last time I saw you."

"Oh, well you know, twelve years, puberty, and a well balanced diet rich in calcium will do things to a girl."

Sam just stared at the little reunion thinking _What the hell is going on here? Am I getting Punk'd?_. Carly turned to Sam but just as she was about to explain, the classroom door flew open and in fell what appeared to be a big black blob. Two seconds and several grunts later it started to move and take the shape of a certain Escalator Girl.

"Well, nothing like a the destruction of public property to break the monotony of the public education system, eh?" she said as she got to her feet.

"You're late again." said Alice as she turned from Carly to the living disruption that had just broken down her door. "And you broke my door."

"Yes, well I have a very good reason for being late and as far as the door is concerned, you broke my flash drive yesterday. Let's just call it even and move on shall we?"

Carly-who had moved back to her seat during the commotion-and Sam were watching the verbal tennis match intently. Who would back down first?

Alice and Escalator Girl were locked in a staring match.

"You've already cost me a door, several minutes of my time, and three dollars that I had to spend on aspirin yesterday. So, if you wouldn't mind please take your seat so we may begin."

As Escalator Girl began to make her way to a seat, Alice began her discussion on digital photography and how it applied to multi-media. Carly was surprised, for the third time this day, as Escalator Girl took the computer directly across from hers.

"This is going to be quite the interesting class, huh?" she asked Carly who, for her part, could do nothing but smile and nod in response.

**

* * *

**

The final bell had rung and as everyone flew out the doorless doorway, Sam pulled Carly aside and asked "Okay, what was that all about, with the teacher?"

"Sam you've been texting me the same question all class period."

"Yes and you said to wait 'til after school. It's been 'after school' for the past five minutes and still no explanation."

Carly just turned to her and asked, "You're not going to drop this until I tell you, are you?"

"That or until hell freezes over, which ever comes first."

"Come on. I'll introduce you." said Carly as she pulled Sam to the front of the room.

Alice was just putting her things away when they reached her.

"Hey, Ms. Fairbanks?"

"Come on Carly, school's out. You can call me Alice. Hearing people say Ms. Fairbanks makes me want to look around for my mother."

"Okay, Alice, this is Sam Puckett, my best friend since first grade. Sam this Alice Fairbanks one of Spencer's closest friends." said Carly finally killing some Sam's curiosity.

"Well Sam nice to meet you. I used to babysit Carly when she was younger."

"Here in Seattle?" asked Sam

"No, um I used to babysit her back when her family was stationed on base in London. Our Parents worked together and since we were neighbors I figured hey, she's already practically living here, why not?" replied Alice.

"So you and Spencer know each other?"

"Yeah, she and Spencer went to high school together. Oh my gosh, he's going to freak when he finds out you're in town! You should come over for dinner tonight. Give us time to really catch up. What do you say?"

Alice looked like she was thinking it over. "Why not? I can't think of any reason not to." She pulled out her cell phone. "Give me your cell number and I'll give you mine. You can text me the address later."

As Carly put her gave her number to Alice, and vice versa, she couldn't help but think how her brother was going to react to his best friend dropping in for dinner after twelve years.


	4. Surprises Come in Packs

**Chapter 4**

"Spencer! SPENCER!!! SPENCE- Oh, there you are." was the scream immediately audible following the slamming door.

Spencer was currently in the living room, wading through an ankle high pile of scrap metal. Carly took one look at him and started laughing. He looked a like a two year-old that just got caught playing in his mother's things.

"Oh my gosh, what are you doing?" she asked as Spencer began to quickly pick up parts. He picked up a pipe and when he went to bend down for something else, realized a pipe shouldn't be held certain ways by the male populous.

"OHH!"was all he said before dropping to the floor.

The girl couldn't help but cringe at the obvious pain on Spencer's face.

"I thought you said you were already half way done? Is it going to be a 'some assembly required' kinda piece?" asked Carly as she helped her brother up to his feet.

"No. I said it was half way done, but I was talking about the plan, not the actual sculpture." he answered as he sat on the couch. "So what was all the yellin' for?"

Carly suddenly took on a completely different mood when reminded of why she was rushing home in the first place.

"Do you remember our time on base in London?"

"Yeah. It was the best five years I ever spent in Europe."

"It was the _only_ five years you spent in Europe."

"Nah-uh. We went to Japan a few years back."

"Japan's in Asia."

"What's the difference?"

"Nothing much, you know, just a whole continent. Anyway, there's a reason I'm asking."

"Yes, reasons for things are nice."

"I got a new teacher today for multi-media."

"Okay."

"She's nice."

"Uh-huh?"

"Yeah, this is her first year teaching at Ridgeway High."

"You know, this is all fascinating and all, but I thought you were going to give me a reason not a rundown of your day?" he said. Spencer was currently still in pain in his nether regions and was starting to get a brain cramp trying to find the connection.

"Alice Fairbanks is my teacher and I've invited her to dinner tonight!" said Carly in one breath.

"Al- Alice... Alice Fairbanks. The Alice Fairbanks. Is in town? At your school? And she's coming to dinner? Tonight?" Spencer tried to process the information given to him.

Suddenly he got up, forgetting all pain, and shook his sister by the shoulders. "Do you have any idea what that means?!?! Oh my God. I have to get ready! I'm all out of taco shells and marinara sauce. I have to go to the store. I'll be back in a few." and with that he was out the door and down the stairs.

"5, 4, 3, 2, cue door, and,"

Spencer rushed back in through the door and headed to the kitchen. "I forgot my keys. Okay, bye." he was gone again.

"3, 2,"

Spencer came back right on cue. "I forgot my wallet. Alright, seriously, I'm gone."

Carly smiled at her brother's actions and let herself drop on the sofa. Immediately the door flew open again.

"What did you forget this time?" she asked the now slightly sweaty Spencer.

"I forgot to tell you, your the best little sister ever."

**

* * *

  
**

"So, remind me again why this is all a big deal?" asked Sam as she watched Spencer struggle with a huge pot of spaghetti.

"Simple, Alice was the girl that got away. She was Spencer's best friend and when she asked him out their senior year, he said no. By the time he realized he did like her, she and her family had already moved off base." answered Carly from the sofa.

Spencer was frantically running from the counter, to the stove, to the fridge, back to the counter, and then stopped midway and headed back to the fridge.

"What are you looking for?" asked Carly as she spotted several packages of taco shells on the bar by the computer.

"MY TACO SHELLS! I can't find them and I know a bought some. I bought three packs-"

"Three packs? Why?"

"Sam, you staying for dinner?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"I see." Said Carly "They're over there by the computer. You need to slow down. She's not coming for another two hours. Besides," she stated as she got up from the sofa and headed behind Spencer, "you need to go get all nice and fancy."

"You're right. I hadn't even thought about what I'm gonna wear. How should I put on my pants?"

"One leg at a time." Answered Carly as she pushed him towards his room.

"What shirt should I wear?"

"The one with the sleeves."

"How should I wear my hair?"

"On your head."

"And socks?"

"Definitely on your feet."

**

* * *

**

Sam sat watching TV as Carly came back out of Spencer's room. She turned at the sound of her friend's footsteps.

"How'd it go?" she asked.

"I finally got him to shut-up and take a shower."

"Did he ask what shampoo to use?"

"No, but he did ask about the soap."

"What'd you tell him?"

"Not to drop it."

"Nice. Say, we still have an hour, what do say we go mess with Mrs. Benson?" asked Sam.

Carly thought about it for less than a nanosecond. "Nah. She'd probably break down again and try to go kidnap Freddie from the prep school."

Just as Carly was about to go into a heartfelt speech about leaving a poor, lonely, middle aged woman alone, the bell rang.

"Coming." she said in the direction of the door. "I wonder who it is?" she wondered.

Carly headed to the door. The minute she pulled it open all her questions were answered. Well, at least the one's concerning the great mystery of the 'bell.'

"Alice! What are you doing here?" she said.

"I thought I was invited over for dinner?"

"Dinner, right, yeah." Carly looked down at her watch. "That's not for another hour."

"Well I thought I'd drop in early and help with dinner." answered Alice.

"Well, come in. Make yourself at home." said Carly.

Just as Alice walked in through the door a pantless Spencer came out of his room.

"Hey Carls have you seen my HOLY CHALUPAS! There's a gorgeous woman in my living room!" he exclaimed, noticing Alice for the first time.

"You've called me many names but 'gorgeous woman' is definitely one of the nicer ones."

"Sam, I think he was referring to Alice." said Carly

"Oh"

"You know usually I get to eat dinner before I see men in their underwear." said Alice as she nodded towards Spencer's lower half.

Following her line of vision Spencer quickly realized what she meant and tried to cover himslef by jumping behind Carly.

"I think I'll go look for my pants now, Carly if you would..." he said

"I've got you covered." she answered as they both made their way to Spencer's room.

"Does he always get that way around company?" asked Alice.

"Only around 'gorgeous women'." joked Sam.

Carly walked in on them sharing a laugh.

"I see you two are getting along." she said

"Well, you know Sam is pretty witty. I think as long we find common ground we'll be okay." stated Alice

"Yeah, you know for a teacher she's pretty cool." added Sam.

**

* * *

**

Spencer finally came out of his room, fully clothed, to the sound of laughter. He found the ladies in the kitchen setting up what appeared to be a spaghetti taco assembly line.

"Well I see you all found your way to the kitchen." he said.

"I'm sorry, I figured since you'd gone through the trouble of doing all the cooking, we'd arrange things to make it a little easier." said Alice. "If it helps, we didn't actually make anything because we were waiting for you to sing the song."

Spencer looked at Alice and said, "It's okay. I'm sorry about earlier, it's just...you know...it's nice to see you again after so long."

Carly pulled Sam over to the fridge ans whispered, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Two grown adults making love eyes at each other like lovesick teenagers?"

"Exactly! By the end of tonight they are so going to be dating." she said.

**

* * *

**

Carly's prediction seemed to be well on its way to becoming a reality as Spencer and Alice seemed to get into old rhythm of comfortable conversation over dinner.

Sam saw what Carly meant when she said the two had best friends. Suddenly a thought occurred to her and she quickly pulled Carly to the side and whispered, "What if gorgeous lady here is already going out with someone?"

Carly hadn't considered that. When she really thought about it there was really no reason for Alice to be single. The woman was nice, funny, and as previously mentioned gorgeous. Carly's reverie was interrupted by the doorbell.

Alice looked up at the door and then at Spencer. "Oh, I hope you don't mind but I invited someone else to join us. I was going to tell you earlier but with all the commotion it slipped my mind." she said apologetically as she got up to answer the door.

Sam and Carly huddled together again.

"Uh-Oh. I think you might have been right." Carly whispered.

"Well, Spencer's already dated one of our teachers before, he got over that rather well."

"She was insane and he dumped her, not the other way around." Carly corrected.

To both the girls' surprise though the person standing on the other side of the door wasn't a man at all. It was none other than Escalator Girl.


	5. Revelations, Answers, and More Questions

**Chapter 5**

Carly turned to Sam. What she saw was a mirror image of her own befuddlement.

As both girls made their way to a corner they noticed Alice and Escalator Girl whispering to each other by the door.

"What do you think she's doing here?" whispered Sam

"I don't know, but.." Carly's words trailed off as she turned her attention to the brunette in her doorway. There was something about the way she carried herself that just seemed so unique to the girl yet somehow strangely familiar to Carly.

"Earth to Carly." came Sam's voice as she snapped her fingers in her friend's face.

"Wha-Oh, yeah, sorry. I just kinda forgot what I was gonna say." admitted Carly sheepishly.

Sam realized what had captured Carly's attention. "That girl should come with a warning." she whispered.

"Why?" asked Carly as she turned back to her friend.

"Because those curves are notorious for derailing your train of thought." she replied with a smirk.

Carly felt helpless as the she felt a blush creep onto her cheeks.

"Yeah, exactly." said Sam. "Heads up, here they come rosy cheeks." she warned as Alice and the teenager made their way towards the kitchen.

"Okay," started Alice, "I know it's been a while since the last time we were all together and memories, for most of us, are a little hazy." she gave a Spencer a pointed look. Realization dawned on him as he figured exactly where this was going.

Alice turned to Escalator Girl and put her hands on the girl's shoulders. "I also understand that things change over time and I want you to know that-"

"Carly Shay."

Everyone turned their attention to the teenager. Alice and Spencer looked at each other warily.

"Yeah, that's right. That's Carly and over there's Spencer." said Alice as Spencer gave a wave and a "Hey."

Carly felt herself about to burst from all the questions running through her head. Mainly, who was this girl and why on earth was she so familiar?

Her questions all seemed to fade away when Escalator Girl finally took off her shades. Suddenly everything made sense. There was a reason behind all the familiarity.

"Blake." It was the only word she managed to say when she found her voice.

"Blake?" asked Sam. "That's your name. Really?" she asked the late arrival.

"Yeah, nice to meet you..." she replied extending her hand at Sam.

"Sam."

They were just about to shake hands when out of nowhere Spencer just grabbed Blake by the shoulders and spun her around to face him.

"You've gotten taller." he said.

"That does tend to be a side effect of the aging process." stated Blake with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I know, it's just...You're here, all grown up. I suddenly realize I'm old."

Alice looked at him and said, "We're the same age. Am I old too?"

"Uh, no, because guys tend to age faster than women, you know, and there's the thing that makes it all...stuff." Spencer said as he tried to cover his mistake.

"Don't hurt yourself Spence. I think she was kidding." said Blake

Spencer's facial expression was somewhere between confusion and constipation. That just caused everyone to began a fresh round of laughter.

* * *

When everything had subsided, Spencer and Alice were cleaning up and conversing over a glass of wine. The girls found themselves alone in the living room. Well, Carly and Blake were in the living room, Sam was still at the table scarfing down spaghetti tacos.

"Does she even chew those or has she developed some sort of enzyme to dissolve it in her mouth?" asked Blake.

"I don't know. After years of wondering I just settled on the idea that she simply absorbs the food straight into her stomach." said Carly.

They shared a chuckle that quickly faded into another silence. It had been like that all night and Blake was starting to get antsy. She really wasn't one for long, uncomfortably silences. So she did what she did best, she broke it.

"So how'd you realize it was me?" she asked. "Was it my striking resemblance to Alice?"

Carly couldn't help the wave of laughter that came next. Alice and Blake, though they were as close a siblings as she and Spencer, looked nothing alike.

Alice was shaped like a model. The woman was tall and thin with legs that went on forever. Blake was built like an athlete. The girl was shorter and had muscle definition with almost strategically placed curves. Alice had fair skin, straight blond hair and pale blue eyes. Blake possessed olive toned skin, jet black wavy hair and …

"Your eyes."

"What?" asked Blake. Carly had taken awhile to answer and she'd zoned out a bit.

"Your eyes. That's how I realized it was you." she answered. "I've never met anyone with eyes that particular shade of violet before. They almost seem lavender."

"Wow. My genetic mutation makes me memorable. I feel so special." said Blake while placing her hand over heart. The sarcasm behind it was something very palpable.

"So how did _you_ realize it was me?" asked Carly.

"Your smile." replied Blake without hesitation.

"My smile?"

"Yeah. You have one of the brightest, most honest smiles I have ever seen." she continued.

"Oh, yeah right." said Carly.

"Really." Blake assured her. She looked down at her hands and then back at Carly. "Most people go through life showing everyone around them a smile, but it's simply a reflex, you know, something that one does out of habit, to be polite. Only certain situations bring out their true smiles. But you, you share that pearly white, heartfelt smile with everyone." she realized that might have been a little to honest of a response.

"Besides, other than my family, I think you were the only person I met on that base that actually cared about dental hygiene." Carly started laughing again. "I'm serious. If you waded through a sea of gingivitis for five years, I think you'd remember a healthy smile standing out."

* * *

The laughter from the couch caught the attention of the two adults currently conversing in the kitchen.

"Even twelve years doesn't seem to have been enough to estrange those two." stated Alice.

"Apparently not." said Spencer.

"I have to admit though, I really thought there would be more friction between them."

"Why?" asked Spencer.

"Well, you know the reason behind our move being what it was. I thought maybe Carly would be a little more hesitant to reconnect." answered Alice.

Spencer grimaced and said, "Yeah, about that. After everything that happened, I didn't really think it would be convenient to tell her why. I figured at the time, telling her that her best friend had moved was bad enough."

Alice nodded her head in understanding. "That seems reasonable."

"So I take it you told Blake?" asked Spencer.

"I didn't have to. She was cognitive enough to figure it out on her own."

Spencer looked slightly confused. "Cog- cogni-"

"Cognitive. Knowing. Smart."

"Yeah, there's a reason I always cheated off of you in AP German." he said.

* * *

It was well after midnight by the time Carly and Spencer even remembered they had a bed.

"Well that was a rather eventful night." said Spencer.

"You think?!"

They both laughed and started towards their rooms. Then a thought hit Spencer.

"Hey, you think we should wake her up?" asked Spencer pointing to a lump on their kitchen table.

"Hey if feel up to it be my guest. Personally I would rather not have a trip to the hospital be the finish to this night." answered Carly as she looked over at Sam.

Spencer chuckled as he walked towards the girl on his table. Sam stirred a bit, mentioned a monster and soup, and then kicked one of the chairs halfway into the living room.

"You know, I think she looks comfortable enough there." said Spencer as he made his way to his room, quickly.


	6. One Simple Solution, One Big Secret

**Chapter 6**

It had been several weeks since the Shays had been reunited with the Fairbanks, and Spencer and Alice couldn't help but notice that the bond between their younger sisters had not changed at all.

Both adults were currently working on what one could only assume was dinner. From their spot behind the counter they had easy visual access to the activity taking place in the living room.

"I really don't think that's supposed to look like that." said Blake.

"What do you mean?" asked Carly

"Yeah, what's wrong with it? That's how it looks in the book." said Sam

Blake, who had been standing behind the couch, jumped over it and landed smack between the two. It would have been described as graceful, were it not for the fact that she'd done it backward and was now upside down.

She looked up as Carly looked down at her with a quizzical look. "This isn't right, is it?" Blake asked.

Her friends both shook their heads in the negative. After some careful maneuvering Blake was finally able to study the laptop screen carefully.

"Okay, so first off, what did you guys learn about HTML coding from today's lesson?"

"HT-what?" asked Sam

"H-T-M-L. Hypertext Mark-up Language. It's the basic building block for web design." answered Carly.

"Yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about." replied Sam. "Lucky for me though, the teacher's freakishly smart sister is now one of my best friends." she continued before sitting back on the couch and turning on the TV.

Blake and Carly looked at Sam then at each other.

"She's really not gonna do anything, is she?"

"Nope. Not a thing." replied Carly. "You see Sam is the kinda girl who-"

"OH MY GOD!"

"Sam, what's wrong?!" asked a rather freaked out Carly.

"Are you okay?" added Blake

"Carly can I speak with you, alone, upstairs, in that place?" was all they received in return for their concern.

"Uh, yeah sure. What's uh-" was all she got out before Sam grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her into the elevator.

As the elevator door came down a befuddled Blake turned to Spencer.

"She, uh, do that often?"

"You mean scream and drag Carly away?" asked Spencer.

"No I mean spontaneously combust." she replied with a smirk.

Saying that Spencer looked confused, would be an understatement.

"She's kidding." assured Alice.

* * *

As the elevator opened up on the third floor studio, Carly couldn't help but ask, "What the heck is going? What is so important that you had to dislocate my shoulder to tell me?"

"I know how we can save iCarly!"

"Come again?"

"I–know–how–we–can–save–iCarly."

Carly just stared back at her with a strange look on her face. "Look, I know the question Blake asked downstairs was a little hard, but I didn't think it was capable of brain damage." she said with a laugh.

"I'm not kidding!"

"Okay. What's the plan? You handle the tech stuff and I host or I know, we get Spencer to do the tech stuff and we host, right?"

"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of tech genius Blake."

"What?"

"Yeah. I mean think about it, she knows how to create web pages from nothing. You saw how she totally worked the computer today, and if she ever had a problem I'm sure Alice could help her."

_Sam's got a very valid point_. Wow, Carly couldn't believe she just thought that.

"Come on Carls. This is our chance to continue doing something we love to do. What could possibly go wrong?"

Carly turned to look at her and said, "You're right."

"Look I know it'll be- What?"

"I said you're right. We should ask Blake to help us out on iCarly."

Sam was still processing the 'being right' part.

"We should go ahead and ask now, in case she says yes, that way we can brainstorm on some ideas for the show." said Carly as she headed back to the elevator. She didn't know why, but the sudden thought of asking Blake anything had her stomach in knots, her palms sweaty, and her breathing slightly erratic.

By the time the elevator doors opened back on the first floor Carly had most of her bodily functions under control.

She stepped out of the elevator and realized her anguish was for naught, Blake wasn't where she'd left her. She started looking around but there was no sign of the girl. She turned to the kitchen, but the only person there was Spencer elbow deep in what she could only assume was dinner.

"Hey, where did Blake and Alice go?" she asked

"Oh, Blake had something come up and Alice had to drive her. They said they'd try to make it back for dinner."

"Which will be...?" asked Sam asked eying the substance wearily.

"Ready. Soon. I hope." he answered.

* * *

About an hour passed before the girls finally started setting up the table for dinner. Just as Carly was about to question how many places to set, Alice came through the door. Carly kept looking behind her at the door as if expecting it to fly open at any second.

This did not go unnoticed by the older Fairbanks. "Something came up she couldn't get out off," she said, "but she did say she'll find a way to make it up to you guys. I hope that's okay?"

"Oh I'm sure it'll be just fine." answered Sam as she looked over at Carly.

"Okay, so who's ready for dinner?" asked Spencer as he placed a bowl of off-green goo in the middle of the table.

Alice looked at the girls and pulled out her cell as she asked, "Okay, so who wants what on the pizza?"

* * *

The next morning Carly found herself alone at her locker, Sam had decided to sleep in. As she went to close her locker door, she couldn't help but jump a bit when she noticed a familiar face standing behind it.

"You always this jumpy?"asked Blake.

"Where'd you come from?"asked Carly.

"Well, either a British stork or Paris, depending on which one of my parents I choose to believe."came the usual snark.

"Why are you always such a smartass?" wondered Carly as she picked up her backpack and started walking to class.

Blake followed behind her and answered, "I'm not. I only come off as a smartass because everyone around me is a dumbass." Noting the look Carly threw her way she added, "Just kidding." as they reached Carly's class. "Look, I'm sorry about last night. If it helps matters in any way it was completely involuntary and I ended up with no dinner."

"Oh, poor baby." mocked Carly.

Blake chuckled as she looked down then smiled as she looked back up, "How about I pay you back, plus interest."

"What do you mean?"

Blake looked down at her wrist strap, witch Carly realized was also a watch,"We have about fifteen minutes before class actually starts, let's go to library!" she said.

* * *

"What are we doing here? The librarians aren't even here yet." asked Carly.

"We are going to use one of these." said Blake as she pointed to one of the school computers. "Let me see what you got done on the project last night."

Carly reached in her purse and pulled out a disk as Blake logged into the computer. Once she was logged on she signaled for Carly to insert the disk. After several seconds of clicking and typing she said, "Seriously? That's it?" Carly gave her a helpless look.

Blake proceeded to bring up her left hand and push a button on her watch. Out of the side popped a USB which she stuck on the side of the keyboard to copy the information on the disk.

"That's a quite a nifty watch you got there."

"I know. It's stylish, practical, and full of surprises."

"Just like the owner." As soon as the words left her mouth Carly could feel the familiar warmth start to crawl up her neck. She was suddenly glad the light in the library was dismal.

Blake figured the best way to proceed was to avoid the silence she knew was coming. "Okay, so as I was saying before, I'll pay you back by finishing up on the project and as a bonus you can ask me for help on anything else."

Carly, oddly relieved, could only nod in agreement. Once Blake had returned the disk and logged off, they made their way back to Carly's class.

"Look, I really am sorry about last night."

"It's okay. Spencer's foray into chowder didn't quite go as he planned." said Carly, "You didn't really miss anything, well, unless you count Sam managing to somehow stuff two slices of pizza into her mouth at once."

"I wouldn't."

"Didn't think so."

Both girls started laughing. When the bell finally rang they were just regaining their breath.

"Guess I'll see you fifth period." said Blake as she took off down the hall.

* * *

"Those were her exact words, you're sure."

"Yes, Sam, for the fifteenth time, those were her exact words." answered Carly.

"Okay. You know, I have a really good feeling about this."

"Good feeling about what?" came a voice from behind.

"Hey, Blakey girl. How's your day been?" asked an overly enthusiastic Sam.

"Uh, fine I guess. Good as any other day anyway." said Blake as she took her seat in front of Carly. "So are you guys ready for the presentation?"

"You finished the test site?" asked Carly. Blake nodded from behind her backpack. It took Carly a while to realize what it was she was doing.

"Your sister's gonna kill you when she catches you."

"If." she said as she put down her backpack and wiped the crumbs off her face.

"What?"

"If. _If_ she catches me, she'll kill me. If."

Just as Carly was about to argue her point, Alice walked into the room and started the lesson.

* * *

The trio was wrapping up their presentation just as the bell rang. Blake shutdown the projector and her laptop, then began putting both up.

Sam took advantage of this time to pull Carly aside and remind her of the plan.

"We have to ask her. The sooner the better." she leaned in closer to Carly, "The _sooner_ the _better_." she repeated.

"Alright, alright, I get it."

Carly walked up to Blake just as she was putting her laptop in it's sleeve. Slowly but surely her palms got all clammy again. She looked back at Sam for support, but all she got was a very annoyed look.

"Hey Blake?" she asked.

"Yeah?" she said as she turned around to face them.

"Uh, I kinda had a question to ask."

"All right. Shoot." she said as she leaned on the front desk.

"You know, how you said, earlier this morning, that you would, you know help, with stuff?" Carly stammered.

"Yeah, of course. Why?"

"Well, you know, we were kinda wondering, if maybe-"

"We want you to help us out on our webshow." cut in Sam.

Blake took a second to answer. "Webshow?"

"Yeah, Me, Sam and Freddie-my neighbor-used to have this webshow called iCarly we would work on after school and stuff, but then he got a scholarship to T.E. Prep and now we have no technical producer and as evidenced by the project you had to basically redo all on your own, technology and us don't mix too well." Carly tended to rant when she was nervous.

Both girls looked at the newcomer expectantly. Blake for her part just stood in front of the desk and looked down at the floor. After what felt like an eternity, "Okay."

"Okay?" asked Sam.

"Yeah. I mean it sounds like fun."

"It is." reassured Carly. "Thank you. You don't know how much this means to us." she said as she threw her arms around the other girl. It didn't take long for Sam to lose her own resolve and join in.

"Uh, ladies, if I suffocate I don't how much help I'll be able to provide."

"Oh, right. Sorry." said Carly. "We meet every Monday to brainstorm, Tuesday to rehearse, and we go live on Wednesdays."

"Well, sounds like you guys really have your stuff down. I promised Alice I'd hang back and help her set up some of the stuff she got in, but I can drop by tomorrow afternoon and check out the equipment."

"That's great. See you then I guess." said Carly

"Later." said Sam.

Once both girls were gone Blake turned around and began placing her stuff in her backpack. Without even looking up she said, "You can come out now. I know your back there."

As Blake looked up from her bag, Alice peeked around the closet doorway. "I still find it somewhat creepy when you do that."

"It's not that hard when the edge your purse is magically floating mid-doorway." she pointed out.

"We set up the equipment last week." With that simple sentence the entire mood in the room took dive.

Blake swung the backpack over her shoulder before she answered. "I have an assignment I have to finish." Noticing the look on the older blonde's face she added, "They said this would be the last one."

"We've been having the same discussion since the beginning." she said as she walked up to her younger sister, "And if there is one thing I've learned, it's that there is nothing I could ever say that would make you change your mind." Alice leaned on the desk and looked Blake in the eyes. "But just so you know, they've been saying the same thing since before you were even born."

"Al, I can't-"

"I know. And I'm not asking you too. God knows if it were my choice to make I'd probably do the same thing."

"I have to go."

"Just be careful." As she saw Blake heading out the door she added, "I won't have medical insurance until after three months!"


	7. Memories Are Golden, Well, Mostly

**Chapter 7**

It was early Saturday morning and Carly and Sam were currently busy going over several ideas for the show when a loud crash got their attention. They quickly went downstairs and were greeted by the sight of Spencer hanging upside down, suspended with one leg tangled in a rope, on a pipe, that was attached to what they could only assume was the five-thousand dollar sculpture. The ladder, currently lying on it's side beside it, told a very telling story.

"What happened?" asked Carly as she reached the landing.

"I, uh, may have overreached a little." said Spencer.

Just as Carly finished setting up the ladder beneath Spencer, the door bell rang. Sam, surprisingly, volunteered to answer.

On the the other side was a rather early Blake.

"Blake, you came." said Sam.

"Yeah, I really had nothing to do this morning and so I figured why not just come on over." she answered.

Carly made her way to the door at the mention of the brunette's name.

"Hey, I wasn't really expecting you 'till later." she said.

"Can I come in anyways?" responded Blake with a mock expression of anguish.

Carly moved to the side as she motioned for the girl to enter with her hand. Blake stepped inside and was quickly ambushed by Sam. The dirty blond(take that any way you wish)was already pushing her into the elevator by the time Carly bothered to say anything.

"Why don't we head upstairs?" she said, more to herself than anything. Just as she said this, though, she remembered the state of the studio. She and Sam had spent the night up there and their 'nightwear' was currently strewn all over the place.

With a sudden amount of speed that would make any running back jealous, she quickly made her way to the elevator and maneuvered Blake out of the lift and herself in.

A stunned Blake just stood there while Carly simply said, "Would you wait here for a sec? Okay. Thanks."

"Sure," she began as the door came down, "why not?" she finished lamely.

As she turned around she noticed Spencer struggling with the ladder. It would've been easy to get the ladder, had he been right side up. She slowly made her way over to him. On her way she had to bob and weave about five times to avoid Spencer's sporadic limbs.

After about two minutes Spencer decided to take a break. "So, what's up?"

"Not much. How's it hanging with you?" she said.

"Ha, I get it. You know something, you may not remember but when you younger you used to get really upset when I showed up at your house and you guys were alone."

Blake just stood looking up at him.

"I think it bothered you that I interrupted your 'bonding time'." he said as he chuckled. "I remember you used to recite your dad's only rule to me. You probably don't even remember it, you were so little."

Blake just continued to look at him funny. Her stare was only broken by Carly shouting from the top of the stairs, "Hey, sorry about that. We're ready when you are."

"It's cool. I was just reminiscing with Spencer. I'll catch up in a sec."

"Okay." she said as she headed back to the studio.

Blake waited until she heard the slam of what she assumed was the studio door. The second he door clicked she spun sharply on her heals and looked pointedly at the still struggling Spencer.

"Familia sobre todo."

"What?"

"Familia sobre todo." she repeated. "Family above all."

Spencer immediately stopped all movement. He maneuvered himself so he was looking right at Blake.

"You remember? But ho--"

"I was young, not stupid. And that's not all I remember." she said.

"Well, what else do you remember?" asked Spencer tentatively.

Blake leaned in closer to his face, "Everything."

"Every--" his eyes widened as the meaning hit him, "Prom?"

"Especially Prom." she answered.

"Look it was all a big misunderstanding."

"What? You thought double date meant date two at a time?"

"No, it's ju--"

"Save it. Obviously you explained it to the people you had to, otherwise we wouldn't even behaving this little trip down memory lane." She rolled her eyes and exhaled, "Alice, for some odd reason even I can't comprehend, still likes you."

"She does?!"

"Yes, she does. She's a very forgiving individual." She inched even closer to his face, "I on the other hand, am not."

And with that said she pushed the ladder onto the couch, it was less noisy then dropping it to the floor yet still unreachable from Spencer's position. She grabbed his free leg and gave it a push. As Spencer spun around, she made her way up the stairs.

* * *

The first thing that struck her as she entered the studio was the fact that Carly and Sam were already rehearsing. Blake closed the door as quietly as possible and watched. They were so into the sketch they never even noticed they had an audience.

"And that's why you should never try texting in the shower while your phone's still charging!" exclaimed Sam.

They began to take bows and Blake took it as her cue, "Bravo! That was hilarious." she praised.

Her friends turned to her and couldn't help the laughter that followed. After a while the laughter began to die down and Sam took the opportunity to let everyone know, "I'm hungry." and then headed for the elevator.

Blake leaned over to Carly and whispered, "When isn't she?"

They shared a chuckle as they followed Sam into the elevator.

* * *

"She's not gonna--"

"She's gonna--"

"She did!"

"I knew she was gonna." was all Carly could say in response to Sam somehow managing to stuff an entire fat-cake in her mouth only minutes after scarfing down an order of ribs and two strawberry smoothies.

Just as they were finishing up, Spencer walked into the kitchen looking a little worse for wear.

"What happened to you?" asked Carly noticing his unruly appearance.

"Why don't you just ask her?" he said pointing straight at Blake.

Carly turned to Blake who simply grinned smugly back at Spencer. It suddenly occurred to Carly what exactly was going on.

"Prom night?"

"Prom night."

"What's prom night?" asked a clearly lost Sam.

"Spencer got dumped by his girlfriend the week before prom." started Carly

"So when my sister asked him to go with her, he accepted." added Blake

"So what's the big deal? I thought that was the point?"

"It was, but when he accepted my sister assumed that meant it was a date." Blake turned to look back at Spencer, "An exclusive date."

"What--"

Carly decided to explain, "As it turns out Spencer's ex couldn't get a date so she just showed up and figured Spencer would suffice."

"Ah. I see." said Sam.

"To make a long story short, Alice ended up embarrassed and in tears, but somehow understood it was all just a big misunderstanding. A young Blake on the other hand only knew two things: one, Spencer had made Al cry and two, he was no longer a welcome visitor. Whenever we'd go over she'd somehow convince me to help torture Spencer in some crazy way. But things are better now, right?" Carly turned to Blake, who was still in a staring match with Spencer, "Right?"

Blake slowly turned to Carly and asked, "Is it really gonna make a difference if I answer either way?"

Carly thought about it for a second. She looked from Blake, to Spencer, and back. "Nah."

"What?!" cried Spencer, "She is out to destroy me!"

"She's not going to destroy you. Alice would kill her if she did."

Blake got up and headed to the opposite side of the island and extended an open hand to Spencer, "Truce?"

Spencer looked at her dubiously, "Why?"

"Honestly," she said, "because after what I did today, I've come to realize torturing you doesn't really pose half as much of a challenge now, as it did back then. Whether it demonstrates physical or psychological growth on my behalf, is currently lost on me."

After noticing the pointed stares being sent her way, Blake decided to rephrase a little. "It's not fun anymore and I don't know why." she said.

"Oh. Okay, then yeah. Truce." nodded Spencer as he took the offered hand.

"What were you working on anyways?" she asked letting go of his hand.

"Oh that, yeah, that was my Five-Thousand Dollar sculpture." he said beaming.

Blake looked over at the pile of scrap metal and pipes in the living room. "Ah, well to each his own." She then turned around to the dynamic duo and stated, "So, I think we should probably get back upstairs and actually get down to business, what say you?"

* * *

As the threesome reentered the studio, Blake took her sweater off and headed straight towards, a now rather empty, equipment cart. She quickly became completely enthralled in looking over every single piece of technology left.

Sam just looked over at Carly and whispered, "When she said 'get down to business' she wasn't kidding, was she?"

"Apparently not." she answered.

It didn't take long for Blake to finish and look back up, "Okay, so first thing we'll need is a decent computer. The one you have downstairs is great for surfing the web, not so much for the constant upkeep needed by a web site. Also your going to need another set of cameras," she said picking up the small webcams on the cart, "these will relay a good enough feed, if you guys ever decide to just sit and talk on the show, otherwise the entire video will seem pixelated and just all around bad."

"Okay, so computer and cameras. How much we talkin' 'bout here?" asked Sam.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" asked the girls in unison.

"Echo much?" said Blake as she slipped her sweater back on, "I've got what we need at home. I was going to bring it with me, but since I didn't know exactly what you had or what the show was all about I left it. I have to say though, that little sketch you were working on earlier pretty much cleared it all up for me."

Her friends looked at each other and flushed with embarrassment at the thought of being caught earlier. Blake noticed and couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty for having intruded upon their rehearsal.

"Tell you what, it's already four and without the stuff I mentioned there's not really much more we can do here. How about we go down to the mall and hang out for a while?"

"Sure, why not." answered Carly.

Sam nodded in agreement and all three headed for the elevator.

* * *

They'd been at the mall for about two hours and had hit nearly every store. Their venture into 'hanging out' had quickly turned to a shopping spree once they got there. Carly and Sam were loaded with bags full of clothing and their weight was taking a toll.

"Hey, you think we could check out the food court next? I need to take a load off and refill the tank." said Sam.

Carly looked over at her and said, "Yeah, all this walking is really starting to make my feet hurt." she agreed.

"Really? I feel fine." stated Blake, who for her part, was carrying nothing except her new Pearpod.

Both girls turned and gave her a pointed look.

"But, then again, I am in the mood for some ice cream." she ceded.

Sam and Carly found a table as Blake went to get the ice cream.

"Hey how much cash you got left over?" asked Sam.

"About twenty bucks, why?"

"I don't know I was just thinking maybe we could catch a movie since we're already here." she answered.

Just as they were discussing which movie was worth the money, Blake came over with their order. She set a sunday in front of Carly and a banana split in front of Sam. Both girls turned to look at her with raised eyebrows as she sat down to join them.

"What?"

"A vanilla ice cream cone?" asked Sam.

"What can I say, I enjoy the simple pleasures in life." smiled Blake.

"Well, okay Ms. Simplicity, Sam and I were just trying to decide what movie we should go see. Any thoughts?"asked Carly.

Blake continued to work on her ice cream cone, but didn't say anything.

"Hello, earth to planet genius, anybody home?" asked Sam as she waved her hand in front of Blake's face.

Blake finally put down the cone and admitted, "I don't really know much about what's playing to have an opinion."

"Sam doesn't know much about anything, yet somehow manages to have an opinion on everything."chuckled Carly. A look from the blond was all it took to end that. She turned back to Blake, "Come on, you must have heard about some movie, right? I mean there's previews on TV all the time."

Blake looked somewhat uncomfortable as she said, "Well, I don't really watch TV either."

Sam looked at her as if she'd just grown an extra head. "So how do you keep with all the celebrity gossip, who's hot, who's not, anything?"

"I don't." she answered, shrugging her shoulders.

"So you have no idea who no idea who Selena Gomez is?" asked Carly

Blake shook her head in the negative.

"Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Taylor Loutner, anything?" asked Sam.

"Nope."

"How about Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers?" asked Carly.

"Them I've heard about." she said and Carly and Sam both smiled. "They're music's not something I'd spend money on, but when they're played on the radio I don't mind listening." she added.

Both of her friends' faces fell. "What? What I'd say?" she asked with a clearly befuddled look on her face.

"Nothing," assured Carly with a smile.

"Yeah, we were you just hoping you knew them from a magazine or something else." said Sam.

Carly noticed Blake's melted ice cream was dripping down her hand, and the brunette was doing nothing to stop it as she stared at it. "Hey, are you okay?" she wondered aloud.

Blake snapped her head up to look at her and said, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine...I mean besides the fact that I just realized how much of social retard I am, I'm great."

"Okay, sarcasm heard and duly noted." stated Sam as she started working her way through Carly's sunday.

"You're not a social retard." Carly said. "You're more like a social dyslexic."

"Gee, thanks."

"Well, what do you do in your spare time?" asked Sam.

Blake suddenly seemed to have a renewed interest in her melted, slightly soggy, ice cream cone.

"Come on, if you don't go to the movies and you don't watch TV, what do you do?"

"I don't know if I should tell you."

"Why not?" wondered Carly

"Because," she started, "you'll think I'm a dork, and a nerd...I'm a derk."

Sam and Carly looked up at her. Yep, she was serious.

Suddenly it struck Carly. "Wait you mean--"

"You remember?"

"I think so." she said slowly, "Back in your basement?"

"Yeah." Blake admitted reluctantly. "Only now it's even worse."

"What do you mean worse? It was never even bad. You know I actually thought it was pretty cool."

"Really? I mean, it so seems so dumb now."

Sam had just about had enough, "WHAT THE HELL IS IT?!?!?"

"She draws." stated Carly flatly.

"What?! You draw. That's it?" Sam was actually a little disappointed. She'd been imagining all sorts of things since the beginning of the conversation, but drawing had never once crossed her mind. "And what was that about a basement?"

"Back in London, she had her parents set up a corner of the basement to be a sort of drawing area. She had a table, a desk lamp, one of those giant multicolor drawing pads, she even had the 64 box of crayons."

"Yeah, the one with the crayon sharpener in the back." remembered Blake fondly.

Carly returned her attention to the brunette, "Why would you think drawing made you a...uh..."

"A derk?" Sam supplied.

"Yeah, that, a derk."

"I don't know. I guess it just seems like something I should have outgrown by second grade."

"The drawing or the crayons?" teased Sam.

"See!"

"Sam!"

"What? I'm just kidding." she said as she punched Blake playfully in the arm. "You should show us some of your stuff. If your any good maybe I'll find it harder to consider you a derk."

* * *

They had spent so much time talking, that by the time they went to the theater, they could only get into the late night showing.

A few hours of missed sleep was well worth the time shared that evening. Sam learned a lot about Blake and Carly's years in London. For starters the Shay and Fairbanks families knew each other way before either girl was born. Spencer was born in Seattle and two years later came Alice. Eleven years after Alice was born, Mrs. Shay had Carly. A few months later both Captain Shay and Colonel Fairbanks were shipped to London and took their families with them.

It had then dawned on Sam, "You weren't born in the U.S.?" she had asked pointing at Blake. The brunette had gone on to explain how her mother had found out she was pregnant once they had all made the big move overseas. Sam figured her new friend was a Londoner, but no.

"My mother left the base for a holiday in Madrid. She figured it'd be okay since I wasn't due for another three weeks, but as luck would have it, no sooner had she and Alice checked into the hotel, when her water broke." They had all laughed at the thought of the hotel personnel having a pregnant woman gush all over the lobby. Though they were almost a year apart, Carly and Blake had taken in their older sibling's footsteps and immediately become inseparable.

Carly also learned a lot of new things about her old friend. Blake had not only mastered Spanish, but also Italian, French, Portuguese and many other languages. "I'm very gifted in he lingual arts." she'd said with wink, causing Sam to nearly fall out of her chair laughing.

Her interest in technology had come from the time spent trying to figure out how things worked. Like any other kid she figured the best way to find out was by taking them apart. _Unlike_ most kids, she could actually put it back together.

Blake may have proven movies and TV were lost on her, but when it came to music, the girl was a walking encyclopedia. "My favorite musician of all time is definitely John Lennon. The guy was a genius." she had stated. Carly had responded that Cuttlefish was her favorite band of the moment, to which Blake had named hers as Paramore.

Though drawing did take a good chunk of her spare time, Blake also enjoyed motocross. "You ride?!" Sam had asked surprised. "Just for fun, nothing serious."

All in all it had been time well spent and none of the participants seemed to mind going home at midnight. Sam had even found it to be the perfect excuse to sleep over at Carly's, again.

It never occurred to Carly Spencer might be upset about her calling it so close with curfew, not then anyways. The thought did slam into her still sleeping head sometime the next morning. Carly sat bolt upright in her bed as the thought of Spencer's reaction found its way into her mind. She looked over at her alarm clock, realized it was almost noon and jumped out of bed, and flew down the stairs. Sam, for her part, remained oblivious to this as she snored away on the couch in the same room.

Carly took the last few steps slowly, inching her way into the living room, half expecting a livid Spencer to be waiting on the couch. What she actually came upon was the sight of Spencer and Alice sitting at the dining table laughing and talking over a glass of iced tea.

"Well hey there sleeping beauty." greeted Alice as she walked into the kitchen.

Spencer turned around in his seat to look at her. "Heard you had a late night." he said as he sipped from his glass.

"Look, I know I cut it really close to curfew, but it wasn't my fault. I mean it kinda was 'cause a should of called or something, but it--"

"I know what happened." said Spencer trying to calm the teenager down.

"What?"

"I know what happened. Blake told me all about the shopping, and the ice cream, and the late night movie. It's okay. I trust you. Next time just try to call and give me a heads up." he finished.

To say Carly was relieved would be a major understatement. She did smile at both adults before making her way to the elevator. The morning before she'd left her favorite undershirt in the studio, and that afternoon when Blake had come over, she'd been so worried with just cleaning up the place she just grabbed everything and tossed it into a pile behind the car sculpture.

As soon as the doors to the lift opened, she headed straight to the pile. She rummaged a bit before she found what she was looking for. She got the shirt and laid it on the seat and slipped off her pajama top.

"Morning stranger."

Carly immediately grabbed the shirt off the seat and tried to cover herself as best she could. In all her haste to change, the girl had managed to miss the presence of a certain Escalator Girl in the room with her. Carly's face turned a familiar shade of crimson and she quickly went to hide behind the sculpture herself.

"Oh please." scoffed Blake, but turned away nonetheless. "I've seen you naked before. Remember?" she asked as she faced the door. "But, then again that was before puberty, so there really wasn't much to see. I mean a crepe had more curves than that."

"Gee thanks." said Carly as she came out from behind the car. "What are you doing here so early?" she asked.

"What? No, 'good morning' or a 'nice to see you'?" asked the brunette still grinning at the door.

"Excuse my greeting manner, but under the circumstances in which I saw you it wasn't very 'nice' to do so." said the older girl in a huff. She was trying to sound as offended as possible to hide the obvious embarrassment.

"It was nice to me." Blake mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing. Are you done yet?" she asked.

Carly put the back of her hand up to her cheeks and felt the warmth die down. "Yeah, I'm finished."

Blake turned around and as she did Carly noticed she had a handful of cables. Upon further inspection she also found a brand new flat screen monitor on the cart, the familiar Pear emblem on the back.

"What's all that stuff?" she asked pointing to the cables.

"The new equipment. Alice and I came over earlier and Spencer helped me unload the stuff from the car." she said as she made her way back over to the cart. "I was going to wait for you, but since you were still sleeping, I figured I'd get a head start."

Carly walked up and stood to the side of cart looking over Blake as she plugged different cables into different ports behind the monitor. "I'd offer to help, but..." Blake looked up and Carly gave her a completely lost look.

"What time did you guys get here anyway?" she asked instead.

"Around eight thirty." the younger girl put in the last cable and looked up at Carly.

"Eight thirty?!?! We got home past midnight yesterday." she said.

"Yeah, I tend to forget that most people need between eight and eleven hours of sleep before they can, ah, fully function." she finished with while raising her eyebrows, referencing the older brunette's topless episode.

Carly just slapped her arm playfully and asked, "So what exactly is all this stuff?" as she moved to the front of the cart.

"Well," said Blake making to join her, "this is the latest technology to come from Pear Computers. I figured a desktop would be better suited for this, than a laptop. It gives a much bigger picture and can relay high def video much better."

"High def?" asked Carly raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. The cameras I own shoot in high def. Speaking of which, I think I left them in the car." she said looking around just to make sure.

"Wait, did you just say them? As in plural?"

"Uh, yes I have three. Is that not enough?" she asked with a smirk.

"I think that'll be plenty." said Carly.

* * *

Sam and Carly had tried to help Blake set up the rest of her stuff, but after Sam had spilled soup on the sound board and nearly caused an apartment fire, Blake had deemed it best for the girls to just wait downstairs. After about twenty minutes they figured it was unfair for the brunette to not only provide everything, but for her to also have to set it up by herself. They sent Spencer to help only to have Blake come running downstairs for the fire extinguisher.

Carly had run up with her and given her a quizzical look.

"He tried to fix the sound board."

"Ah. It burst into flames?" asked Carly.

"And then exploded." she said squeezing the extinguisher one more time. "Again." Blake added looking back at Sam. Who just smiled sheepishly.

In order to avoid serious injury, whether to herself or others, Blake decided to just take care of it herself. It had been several hours and her friends were already setting up the table for dinner.

"Hey, Carly, you think you could rush upstairs and remind Blake she has to eat at some point?" asked Alice as she worked on the salad.

"Sure." she said and headed straight for the elevator. The doors opened to reveal a weary looking Blake. "Hey, I was just on my way up to tell you dinner's ready."

"Sweet, I'm starving." she said as she walked out of the lift.

"Well when you skip both breakfast and lunch that's to be expected." stated Alice.

Blake just looked over at her, not really wanting to take the bait. Instead she opted for giving a status report. "Well, the laborious part is over. I got all the equipment set up and tonight all I have to do is rework the site so it's compatible."

"Tonight?" asked Carly giving her a stern look. "Oh no ma'am. You are going to take a break and enjoy some TV after dinner."

"And watch what? A tween with a secret identity as a pop star or tween twins on a ship?" retorted Blake.

"They have an X-Files marathon on SyFy." she countered.

"Fine. But no one goes up to the third floor without my say so." she said looking at Spencer and Sam specifically.


	8. Web Shows Are Hard Work

**Chapter 8 **

"Did you know she did this?"

"I had no clue."

"I have to admit, the girl has major skills. I mean to install a keypad in the elevator and then rig it to block access to the third floor? That is so cool."

"Cool? It's amazing!"

"It's genius!....But why do you think she did it?" queried Spencer as he turned to his sister.

"More than likely to keep you from trying to 'fix' anything else." she said with a grin.

Spencer opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by the front door opening, followed by the sound of teenage girls debating.

"I seriously think that if I had the chance, I would totally take it."

"I'm not saying I wouldn't do it, I just think I'd want to have an audience."

"Why? So Ms. Briggs would have damning proof you were the one to set her room on fire?" asked Sam as she followed Blake in. The latter simply stopped and leaned against the back of the couch.

"See that's the beauty of it. The challenge, if you will. I would have to device a way to pull it off without getting caught, even with witnesses and no prior access to the room itself."

Sam looked at Blake like she'd gone completely out of her ingenious little mind and she let the girl know as much, "Are you insane?!?!"

Blake pretended to take the question to heart and appeared deep in thought, as if actually considering the possibilities. "You know," she finally said, stepping away from the couch and folding her arms across her chest, "that would really depend on which one of my therapists you asked."

The look on the girl's faces let Blake know she had achieved her purpose, total and complete bewilderment. The usual grin slowly started to grace the lips of the younger brunette and her slightly older counterpart was the first one to responded.

"One day I'm gonna find the perfect way to wipe that shit-eating grin right off your face." she said mimicking Blake's earlier arm crossing.

"Ooh, language." Blake smirked as she walked by Carly and stepped over to the elevator. This effectively brought back Carly and Spencer's previous conversation. So they both decided to follow. Sam, though, decided there were much more interesting things to be found in the fridge.

As Blake called for the elevator, Carly decided to try and get the passcode from the girl. "So," she started, drawing out the word, "I was trying to get to the third floor--"

"Your birthday." Blake cut her off as the elevator opened.

"What?"

"The passcode. It's your birthday." affirmed Blake as she stepped into the elevator, once again followed by Spencer and Carly.

"How'd you know that's what I was getting at?" asked Carly turning to her friend.

"I dunno, maybe because you're about as subtle, as Sam is passive or perhaps I'm as stupid as Spencer is likely to fix something and not have it burst into flames." she said typing in the passcode and allowing the door to come down and the lift to go up.

As they rode Spencer spoke up and asked, "Why Carly's birthday?"

"Simple," started the genius as the doors opened in the studio, "your sister here, is the kinda person that is too humble to ever even ponder the idea that maybe someone, somewhere happened to think about her when she wasn't in the immediate vicinity."

It was a good thing Blake had her back to Carly otherwise she would've noticed the all too familiar crimson seeping onto her features. Spencer would've noticed himself if he weren't busy continuing his inquiry into 'the passcode mystery'.

"Well, how could you be so sure I wouldn't figure it out?" he asked with, what he assumed, was attitude.

Blake had to turn away to hide her miserable failure at a straight face. When she had somewhat composed herself, she turned around and answered, "Well, because you'd assume I would be smart enough to come up with some extremely complicated, indecipherable, unascertainable passcode, therefore making the most obvious choices the least obvious, and I am simply cognizant enough to know that."

Spencer looked like he was closely following her and then suddenly just looked down at his feet and said, "I'm going back downstairs."

"Hey, can you send Sam up here?" asked Carly.

He just waved a hand dismissively as he entered the elevator again. When the door closed behind him, Carly turned to Blake with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" asked the genius staring at the monitor, not really seeing the look, but rather feeling Carly's gaze on her.

"Why do you delight yourself in belittling his intelligence?" she asked pointedly.

"Sweetie," she began looking up, "I can't really belittle something that isn't there." she finished, placing air quotes around 'belittle'.

Carly walked up to her and stood mere inches from her. "You know what? I think you lied."

"About what?"

"You didn't give up on torturing him, you just found a more **surreptitious **way to do it." she said placing special emphasis on surreptitious. She needed to make it clear that it took more than big words to throw her, a lot more.

Blake turned to fully face her, quirked an eyebrow and gave a crooked smile.

That was definitely more than big words.

"Uh-uh. Don't do that." said Carly wagging a finger in Blake's face.

"Do what?" she asked in a manner most people would describe as 'innocent'.

"Deflect."

"Deflect?"

"Yeah, every time you get caught-which admittedly isn't often- you always deflect any form of criticism by turning on the 'Fairbanks charm'." Carly had turned her back to Blake and was now pacing the floor of the studio.

"Which is..." asked the younger girl smirking. She knew full well what the web host was referring to, but she wanted to hear it from the older girl's lips.

"Oh, you know, that stupid crooked smile and the eyebrow quirking that brings attention to your eyes." _Those big, gorgeous, violet eyes _she added mentally.

"Oh, **that **charm."

"Yeah, **that** charm, the one I'm luckily immune to." Carly stated, now facing out the window she had found her way to during her rant.

Blake started to make her way from behind the computer, "Oh, yeah. I remember this old dance." She began to walk over to the other girl, "I do something wrong, you call me on it," she was right behind Carly now, "I try to be charming and you," she whispered the last part right in the girl's ear, "try to pretend you're not charmed."

Carly hadn't even realized Blake had moved, let alone how close the girl had gotten. She turned around only t0 be met by a pair of very piercing violet eyes. There was no crooked smile, no quirked eyebrows, just the eyes. The sun's reflection gave them a certain glow. Carly was absolutely captivated.

"So what'd I miss?" That simple question shattered the entire moment as Blake turned back around to face the late arrival.

"Not much, I wanted to wait for you to come up before I explained anything." she said to Sam. Once Sam had found her way up to them, Blake made her way to the computer. She typed away on the keyboard and suddenly a camera began to drop from the ceiling.

"Whoa! What is that?" asked Sam.

"It's your new pan-cam." Blake stated with a huge smile. "I was looking over previous episodes, and realized you guys could really use one. This baby is completely remote operated and," she grabbed a toggle and began to move it around, " the track I set it on, allows for total 360 coverage."

"Wow, that's extremely high-tech for a web show, don't you think?" asked Carly.

Blake held up a finger and then spun around looking for something. She finally found what she was looking for by the door. It was a large black case and she immediately got down on her knees and opened it up. Inside were two cameras.

"These are Sony HVR-Z7U HDV professional grade cameras. I figured you guys would want to keep the basic 'homemade' feel to the show, so I got these." she said pointing from the camera in her hand, to the second case below the first.

"See, I have no idea what you just said, but for some reason I am able to suppress the urge to punch you in the face and call you a dorkwad." stated Sam.

"Uh, thanks?" said Blake as she started to make her way over to yet another pile of cases on the hood of the car.

"How is it that I missed all this when I walked in?" Carly mumbled to herself.

"What's up?" asked Blake un-piling the cases.

"Nothing. What is all that stuff?" she diverted attention from her by pointing to one of the cases.

Blake reached in and pulled out what looked like fat Pearpods. "These are your new mics." she handed each host a mic and continued to explain, "This part will be clipped to your tops like so," she said clipping the mic bud to the collar of Carly's shirt, "and the transmitter will be clipped to the back hem of your bottoms." She made to demonstrated this step as well, and as she was about to reach for Carly's pants, she thought better of it and handed the girl the transmitter, "Uh, here, you do that. Um, in order to keep the mics from being too obvious you'll have to run the wires kinda like I run my earbuds in class, you know, under your clothes."

As the girls continued fiddling with the mics, Blake opened another case and pulled out a tripod.

"Ooh, ooh, I know what that is." jumped up Sam excitedly, "That, that there, that's a tripod."

"Yes, yes it is." said Carly turning to the blond and giving her a strange look.

This went unnoticed by Sam who continued, "That's where people like me place cameras."

"What do you mean people like you?" asked her co-host.

"Yeah, you know, people too lazy or out of shape to actually carry one of those." she said pointing to the camera Blake was setting up on the tripod. This caused the youngest girl to stop and look at the camera, and consider Sam's reasoning for a second..."Nah." she dismissed the thought and headed back to the cases.

The last case was big. No, understatement, it was huge. Before she opened it she headed behind the car and rolled out an immensely large, wooden podium. She stopped it right behind the tripod.

As Blake knelt down to lock the wheels in place Carly mumbled, "Seriously, how'd I miss all this?"

Sam looked over at her and asked, "What was that?"

"Oh, uh, nothing." she brought a hand up to her chest, "I just had a little heartburn."

"I told you not to have the cafeteria food."

"You have it all the time."

"Yes, but my digestive organs are trained for that kind of caustic abuse. I mean I did eat my mother's cooking before we met." she said.

Blake looked up from the podium and asked, "Your mother cooked?"

Sam nodded.

"Actual food?"

Nod.

"That was meant for human consumption?"

Sam lifted her head to nod, stopped, thought about it, and shook her head instead.

Blake rolled her eyes and laughed while walking to the last case. She opened it and Sam pointed at it's contents and exclaimed, "Oh, you got another one! You got another...uh...um, what is that again?"

"This is a soundboard. I'm gonna need help with this one." she said moving to one end of it and pointing to the other.

Blake looked from one host to the other. "Well?"

Neither girl moved.

"Anyone?...Bueller?"

"It looks kinda heavy." provided Carly.

"Gee, I wonder if that's why I asked for help?" said Blake, sarcasm dripping from every word.

She turned to Sam. "Don't look at me. The only heavy lifting I'm willing to do usually involves food in some way."

Blake gave her a WTF look and then proceeded to let her head drop to the hood.

Carly pulled out her phone, "I'll text Spencer to come up."

Blake's head flew up at the sound of Spencer's name and she opened her mouth to say something, but a pointed look from Carly made her close it and just smirk instead.

* * *

It had been twenty minutes since Carly had sent the text. Sam was on a bean bag, playing a game on her phone. Carly was lying on the hood of the car, her feet dangling over the grill and Blake was sprawled on the floor beneath it, staring at the ceiling and occasionally swatting at Carly's dangling feet.

And that's how Spencer found them when he finally came up in the elevator.

As the doors opened he rushed in and said, "Uh, you guys texted?"

"Where were you?" asked Carly sitting up.

"Downstairs." he said.

Blake pushed herself up on her elbows and turned to him, "Why the hell did it take you twenty minutes to get here from downstairs?"

Spencer smiled and said, "Oh, well funny story. I, um, couldn't get the passcode right and after three tries it locks you out for fifteen minutes."

Blake looked up at Carly with slacked jaw and a raised eyebrow. Carly for her part just gave her a warning look.

"See I figured since you're European that it was day, month, year," continued Spencer unaware of the previous exchange, "but by the second attempt-after the lock out-I remembered you were raised by Americans, so I tried it month, day, year and it worked."

Blake looked at her feet in front of her and asked, "So, uh, why didn't you just try the stairs?"

Spencer thought about it and said, "I didn't think about that."

Blake looked back up at Carly for permission, but the older girl just shook her head in the negative. Blake let out a breath in exasperation and dropped back to the ground.

* * *

"Hey, guess what I got for you today?" said Blake as she sat down next to Carly at lunch the next day.

"Bacon."

Both brunettes turned to look at the blond in front of them.

"Well you said guess."

Blake opened her mouth to respond, but thought better of it and just turned back to Carly instead. "I finally finished unpacking my stuff last night--

"Haven't you guys been living at the Parker-Nichols hotel for the past three months?" asked the older girl.

"Yes." said Blake, sporting a 'what's your point' look.

"Never mind, what happened?"

"I found my entire music collection!" she looked from one girl to the other, "That means we have music for tomorrow."

"We've never actually had any music before. Well, unless you count that one time Gibby--"

"No, Sam, I don't and for everyone's sake neither should you." Carly reprimanded, and then turned to a confused Blake and said, "Music would be nice. How do you plan on working it in?"

"I figured just play it throughout the show as background noise, highlight it during 'Random Dancing' and then post the songs used as a playlist on the site. With proper copyright uses and all that, of course."

"Sounds like a plan to me! We need some actual music to dance to. I mean we had music, but it was this weird thing Fredwad had come up with on some freaky software." said Sam, just as the bell rang. "Well I gotta get going. If I'm late again that means another detention and my only 'free' day left is tomorrow." she said as she got up and left.

"She meant aside from the weekend, right?" asked Blake turning to Carly.

"Somehow, I don't think so."

* * *

Spencer was working on his 'Five-Thousand Dollar' sculpture while Alice watched...from a safe distance of course. Just as Spencer was about to place a piece of sheet metal on its point, at the top, all three girls rushed through the front door and past the ladder. That effectively knocked over said ladder and sent Spencer spinning through the air. He landed flat on his butt and had mere seconds to notice the rapidly falling sheet metal. He spread his legs with no time to spare.

"Are you okay?" asked a stunned Alice running over to help him up.

"Oh yeah. Being a few millimeters away from castration is everyday fodder for me." he replied.

Alice just rolled her eyes and pulled him up. She turned to the kitchen in time to catch all three girls pass a cup of juice around. "Hey, you, uh run out of cups or something?" she asked as they rushed past her and called for the elevator.

Blake turned to her as she entered the elevator and stated, "Nope, just faster to pour once and share."

As the door closed between them, Alice turned to Spencer and smiled, "I will never fully understand what she just said."

* * *

The second the door started to open on the third floor, Blake ducked and made her way out. She quickly sprinted over to the computer, turned it on and started typing and clicking away.

Meanwhile Carly and Sam were busy hooking up their new mics and going over what they had rehearsed. They both spoke about different things, at the same time, and somehow managed to still understand everything.

Blake dashed from behind the computer and headed over to the soundboard. She pressed a button and everything begin to glow a slightly blue color. Without hesitation she began moving some dials, cuing some music, and setting volume levels.

"Uh, girls do me a favor and throw out a couple of random lines." she said.

Both girls stopped fidgeting and threw her a questioning glance.

"Just say a couple of lines, one barely above a mumble, the next nice and loud. I need a baseline for the volume levels." she explained as she threw on a pair of headphones.

"Sometimes I dream of hurting of people."

"Sometimes I think Sam has serious issues."

Blake had to look down at the soundboard to hide a grin as she realized the comments were never actually meant to be heard by the other girl. She looked back up and nodded for them to continue.

"MOMMA LIKE THE MEAT." yelled Sam.

Blake couldn't help but chuckle at the true statement. She set the volume levels and turned expectantly towards Carly. The older brunette seemed to be deep in thought.

"Carly?" she asked.

The girl just mumbled something in return.

"What?"

"MAYBE THIS WASN'T SUCH A GOOD IDEA." she yelled.

Blake took off her headphones and headed towards the girl. "Why?" she asked coming up to her, "Is something the matter, something wrong? Did **I** do something wrong?"

The concern in the younger girl's voice was very palpable and suddenly Carly regretted her prior statement. "No!" she answered quickly. "You did nothing wrong and don't ever think you did."

"Well what am I supposed to think? We've been setting this whole thing up for almost a week and suddenly," she looked down at the ever-present wrist band, "three minutes before show time you start wigging out on us."

"I'm not **wigging** **out**. I'm just nervous is all. You know it's been a while since we've done this, maybe I've lost my touch."

"You've had five days to think about this and you choose now to start second guessing your hosting prowess?!?!" shrieked Sam.

Blake took hold of Carly by the arms and looked her in the eyes. "First off, once you tap into a talent and really get a sense for it, it doesn't go away. As clichéd as it may sound, it really is like riding a bike, once you've mastered there's very little that can be done to regress." she assured. "Second and most importantly, we don't have to this. There is no signed contract obligating you to do any of this. You do it for fun. If at any point you feel it stops being fun, then there is no reason for you to continue."

Carly let the truth behind the new tech producer's words sink in.

"Okay. Let's do this."

With that Blake dropped her hold on the host, turned around, slipped her headphones back on and quickly made her way to the computer. She made one click, grabbed a camera and headed towards the girls.

"Alright, ready in five. Four. Three. Two…"

"Hello inhabitants of Earth, Saturn, and Uranus!"

"Welcome back to the only show guaranteed to cure your illness with only mild side effects!"

"I'm Sam!"

"I'm Carly!"

"And this is iCarly!" said both girls in unison.

* * *

Alice and Spencer were currently sitting on the couch getting better reacquainted, the Five-Thousand Dollar sculpture long forgotten.

They were so immersed in their current 'activity' they didn't hear the footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Oh my gosh, that felt so awesome! Getting back in front of the camera, acting a fool,"

"And thoroughly enjoying." added Sam.

"I have to admit, that was totally awe-Ahh!" Blake came up short as she realized what was going down on the couch.

"Ew, gross! Old people sucking face!" she said as she jumped over the back of the couch and landed on the furthest corner away from the couple.

Alice looked around Spencer to face her sister, "Did you just call me old? I'm only twelve years older than you missy!"

"Yeah, 'older' being the operative word." was the simple retort. Blake had to do some quick maneuvering in order to avoid a series of random nuts and bolts being used by Alice as projectiles.

Spencer quickly grabbed Alice by the waist and pulled her back down. "Hey, watch it! I need those." he said as he nuzzled her neck slightly.

"I'm gonna be sick." mumbled Blake as she walked past them and headed back to her friends.

Sam had found her way to the kitchen, again. Carly was now sitting on a stool in front of the computer.

She turned around to face Blake, "Hey, you wanna check to see if we have any feedback on the show yet?"

Just as Blake was about to agree, her phone went off. She held up a finger and dug in her pocket for the tiny machine.

"Text message." she said to Carly as she pulled out the phone.

Carly watched as Blake's expression changed as she read the text. "Something wrong?"

"Uh, yeah. Listen I'm sorry, but I'm going to have rain check on the feedback. Something I can't really get out of just popped up." was Blake's answer.

Before Carly could ask anything Blake grabbed her stuff and was out the door. All the dumbfounded brunette could do was turn to Alice, who just shrugged apologetically in return.


	9. Anger, Worry, Jealousy?

**A/N: I took an unforeseen hiatus and I apologize. It was never my intention to leave you guys hanging for so long, especially those of you that have bothered to review: seddie4evaXD, lita rocks LbC, AwkwardSquirrel, and sockstar. Hey even Maestro of the End, constructive criticism is very valuable to me. Okay enough about me (and you) on with the story!**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

It had been a little more than twelve hours since Blake had abruptly left. Carly was fuming and ready to give her friend the third degree the second she laid eyes on her, but she was forced to keep it all bottled up because the younger brunette never showed up at her locker.

As the day progressed Carly's anger and frustration dissipated, giving way to worry and confusion. It was getting close to the end of fourth period and there had been no sign of Blake all day.

"HEADS UP!!!"

"Huh?"

As her face made painful contact with the dodge ball and she felt the sting of cold, ridged rubber on flesh, Carly realized P.E. was not the class to space out in.

"Puckett!" yelled the coach, "Go check on Shay and get her to the changing rooms, pronto!"

Sam quickly made her way to her best friend.

"Carls are you okay?" she asked as she knelt down beside her.

"Oh don't worry Mrs. Benson, I didn't mind the texture at all."

Sam just eyed the girl with a questioning look, "What? Never mind. Come on, let's get you off the battlefield."

Once Carly had regained a proper conscience and most of her senses, her blond counterpart took the initiative.

"So what fantasy were you concentrating so hard on?" she teased.

Carly just threw her a pointed look. "I was thinking about Blake."

"Refer back to my previous question and note the use of the word 'fantasy'."

"Sam,"

"What? I don't blame you. I mean who wouldn't wonder what's underneath all those formfitting layers of clothing? If it makes you feel any better I can assure you, you are not the first person to do so." she finished with a smirk.

Carly made an odd face and said, "First off, your mental dwellings are not as reassuring out loud as they are in your head,"

"Right, like your mind hasn't gone there."

"Not the point." she deflected. If she was really honest with herself her mind had gone there. And back. Several times. As a matter of fact it had racked up enough frequent flier miles to get her and Spencer from Seattle to Honolulu-and back-for free. It made her feel pervy and therefore slightly uncomfortable admitting it out loud.

"I was thinking about what took place last night."

"Oh? What did take place last night?" asked Sam with smirk.

"SAM!!!"

"Sorry! You were saying?"

"I haven't seen her all day, have you?"

"Now that you mention it, no I haven't."

"I don't know but, I think she's avoiding us."

"Why?"

"To keep from explaining the sudden and abrupt end to last night."

"Oh. My. God." started Sam as realization dawned on her-_so that's what that feels like_- "You're tweaked that she left you!"

"No! I'm upset that she left without saying why or where too-"

"Or who with?" provided Sam. At her best friend's change in demeanor, Sam decided not to push it. "Look whatever is going on we'll get the chance to find out in roughly...fifteen minutes."

**

* * *

  
**

As both girls filed into class, Carly scanned the people already there. No, no genius in sight.

Noticing her bff's uneasiness, Sam provided, "She's always late, you know that."

Another hour passed before Carly began to seriously consider ripping into Alice for information. The older blond, for her part seemed unphased by her sister's absence. She was actually in the middle of a demo on something she called a 'wysiwyg'. Carly decided to wait until she was done.

"And basically that's how the software operates, what you see is what you get, simple as that." She looked up at the clock. "Alright then, there's forty-five minutes left in class, have at it."

Carly took this as her cue and began to get up. No sooner had her butt left the chair, than a portly lady, with a very large perm-poof, walked in.

"Staff meeting!" she squawked.

Alice looked caught off guard for a fraction of a millisecond, then just as quickly she said, "Oh, yes. The meeting." She looked back at the class, "You have your assignment, if you have any questions please hold on to them and, I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Without another word she grabbed her purse off the desk and headed out the door.

Carly just sat back down and stared off after her.

* * *

"Something is up."

"Something like what?"

"Something secret, something big."

"Well, what do you think it is?"

Carly-who'd been pacing behind the couch-stopped dead in her tracks and looked at her friend.

"If I knew, I wouldn't be stressing, now would I Sam?!?!" she stated exasperatedly.

Sam gave her a conceding look and went back to-_What _**_is_**_ she doing?_ thought Carly.

"What are you doing?" she asked noting the assortment of brass knuckles on the coffee table before them.

"I'm getting ready." responded the blond nonchalantly as she picked up a particularly jagged model.

Carly gave her a wary look and opted for the safe question of "Ready for what?"

"I'm meeting Gibby and a group of his fellow Gibby people for a little friendly debate."

Carly was just going to ask what the topic could possibly be, when she felt the familiar vibration of her phone going off, and sure enough her ringtone shortly followed.

"Poker Face?" asked a smirking Sam.

"It's catchy and rhythmically hypnotic!" threw back Carly defensively but, answered the call quickly nonetheless.

"Hello?" she questioned.

"Carly?" The voice on the other end threw her a second.

"Yeah?"

"Hey, it's Alice."

"Hey! Didn't you just hang up with Spencer like twenty minutes ago?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's actually why I'm calling you now. I just wanted to let you know I won't be able to make it to dinner with you guys. Blake had a mishap with her bike last evening and-"

"Oh my gosh, is she okay?!?!" The concern in the brunette's voice could've been picked up by a stranger halfway across Seattle.

Noticing the distress the news caused the young girl, Alice was quick to continue. "Oh no, she's fine. Just a little banged up. She'll be back in school tomorrow. To be honest, I would've left her alone and gone over anyways but, she's on these meds that turned out to have some odd side effects, and let's just say that after what happened when I left her alone this morning, for work, I'd rather just play it safe."

"Oh, well, that's good to hear. I mean, about her being okay, not, you know, the side effects, or, you know-Is there anything I can do?"

"Nah. It's really nothing too bad. Knowing her the way I do, she'll probably be back on that thing as soon as she finds the keys." assured Alice.

"If there in the usual place, consider them found as of the second you even _thought_ of putting them there." chuckled Carly.

"That predictable huh? Oh well, unless I can dig a hole to China in the next few hours, it won't matter where I hide them. I'll see you in class tomorrow."

"I'll be there."

"And Sam?"

"I only make promises I know I can keep."

Alice began to chuckle at the response only to awkwardly stop when she realized the girl was serious. "Hmm, well, you know...that's...that's great. I'll let you get back to that then. Bye."

"Bye."

As Carly ended the call, she turned back to the couch to share the news, only to find it empty. She looked up in time to catch sight of a few blond wisps making their way out her door. She glanced back at the coffee table and realized that Sam's collection, though still strewn there, was incomplete. There was a particular model missing.

"I wonder what she would've taken if it weren't a friendly debate." she wondered aloud.

* * *

"Three-left-eight-right-one...DAMN IT!!!" Blake's left hand slipped causing her locker to jam shut again.

Carly, who had been enjoying the one-handed display of skill-or rather lack thereof-took this as her cue to intercede in order to prevent property damage.

"Need a hand." she piped up as she walked up to the younger girl.

"HA-HA! That was so funny and original. Maybe you should do stand up if this whole web-show thing falls through." The sarcasm was practically dripping from every word but, the girl took a step back anyway.

"Combo?" asked Carly as she reached for the locker.

"Three-eight-one." stated Blake flatly.

She watched as the older girl concentrated on the task at hand and made absolutely sure, when the door jammed again, that the patented smirk made it's trademark appearance.

At the first sight of said smirk, Carly got ready to retort and was riled up for an argument but, one look at her violet eyed friend took the fight right out of her.

The younger brunette's face was oddly pale, causing the scarlet road rash, on the right side, to really stand out. That, in combination with the bandaged right hand, made for a very painful picture.

"It really does look a lot worse than it actually is."

"Sorry." Carly smiled sheepishly at Blake. She'd been caught staring, what else could she do?

"It's okay. Staring is totally and completely innocent. Well, at least compared to what Chloe Schecter tried to do earlier."

Carly shot up an eyebrow, "What **did** Chloe try to do exactly?"

"Let's just say some people will just not take your word on things."

Just as Carly was about to demand elaboration, Sam came rushing over to them.

"Is it true Crazy Chloe stripped you in the cafeteria?" she asked with a giddiness that was quite uncharacteristic.

Carly turned a questioning gaze on the violet eyed girl.

"She tried." clarified the youngest teen. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this but, I am so glad Briggs has a 'heightened sense for rampaging hormones'. Her words, not mine."

"Why?" asked Carly.

"I dunno, to better stalk her prey with?"

"Not Briggs!"

"Oh." said Sam.

Carly gave her a 'what the hell?' look and then turned to ask Blake, "Why would Chloe want to strip you?"

"Have you seen me?" Blake followed her response with a crooked smile that earned her a scowl from the older brunette. "Look, I don't know why. All I know is that she came up to me in the breakfast line, asked if my face was the only place I had road rash, and then proceeded to start trying to unbutton my blouse. Were it not for Briggs' timing and my use of an undershirt, I might've been out with a cold the rest of the day."

She was relieved at the sight of a smile tugging at the corners of Carly's mouth. "Hey, Sam you wanna make a quick buck and destroy school property in one swift move?" she asked.

Sam's face lit up and she motioned the girl to continue.

"I can't get this sucker open and figured it justs needs a little incentive. I'd do it myself but," she held up her bandaged hand.

"You're right handed. No worries, just go stand watch by the stairs and let Mama take care of it." she said.

Both Blake and Carly did as they were told. They weren't even halfway to the stairs when heard a loud crash and turned to see the locker door sliding on the floor. It came to stop just in front of their feet.

"I'm guessing she's finished." stated Blake as she tilted her head to face Carly.

"I'm guessing you're right."

* * *

It was fifth period and Carly was pleasantly surprised to see Blake walk in and take her seat in front of her.

"Afternoon ladies." she greeted as the she went about setting up, the rest of the class stopped in their tracks and ogled at the brunette a bit.

Not one to let something slip through the cracks, Blake quickly noticed the sudden attention and asked, "Did I, um, do something wrong?"

"Yeah, you showed up on time." answered Sam.

Not missing a beat, the younger girl turned to her fellow students and proclaimed, "My dear comrades, I offer you my sincerest apologies. It would appear that my current, curative measures have the unforeseen, secondary effect of time mismanagement."

Somewhere between greeting her friends and the beginning of her speech, the wounded girl had donned an incredibly accurate Irish brogue; their was not a single straight face in the room. This was all the encouragement needed for the genius to continue.

"I realize my timeliness has shaken your temporal beliefs at their core but believe me when I say unto you, it shall not happen again."

A round of applause rang through the room. Blake quickly stood up and began to bow to her public. She got back up from her third bow a little too quickly and felt the lightheaded feeling induced by vertigo. She braced herself to hit the floor face first, only to feel herself guided back into her seat by a pair of arms cautiously snaked around her waist.

"Whoa, there Braveheart. Take a seat and thank your 'people' later."

In all the time she had known the girl, Sam had never seen Carly get up as fast as she just had. The older brunette sat her younger counterpart down gently and then made her way back to her own seat.

"Hate to break it to you luv but, the Great William Wallace was Scottish, not Irish." correct Blake as she took a breath to compose herself.

"Yes, and it would appear that you're 'curative measures' have other side effects besides getting you to class on time." Carly retorted.

"Well, at least it will serve to make me a bit more wary of taking several flights of concrete stairs headfirst." she said with a loopy smile.

"I thought you wrecked your bike?" asked Carly.

"I did."

"But you just said you fell down stairs?" asked Sam.

"I did."

Both of her friends looked at each other before turning to her. "Okay," started Carly, "either this requires more details, or those meds are having some serious side effects."

Blake smiled and explained, "I took the stairs head first **while** on my bike. Needless to say my endeavor was thwarted by the ever constant presence of gravity."

The girls nodded in understanding and the let conversation end there as Alice walked in and began the day's lesson.

* * *

Everyone filed out of the class as soon as the final bell rang for the day, though there were a few that lingered by the door.

"Why are they loitering?" whispered Blake turning to her friends.

They looked over in the direction of the door and saw three girls and two guys. "Because those three have high hopes and those two don't have clue." Sam said with a wink.

Blake chuckled at her response but, sent a wave in the group's direction nonetheless. They all looked around flustered and then scattered. Just as Blake turned back to Sam, one of the girls, a redhead, came rushing back up to Blake.

"Hi Blake."

"Hi...It's Kara, right?"

"Yeah...Uhm, I just wanted to let you know, that, well, I think violet is a very intriguing color." she purred leaning towards the younger girl slightly.

_She's flirting_, realized Carly.

Blake gave a sideways smile. She chuckled as she glanced at her feet and then back up at the girl. The motion caused her dark hair to veil her face and bring out her eyes in the process. _What the hell was that?_ Thought Carly.

"Thanks." Blake threw back at the girl.

Then it dawned on Carly, _She's flirting back!_

While Carly was busy drawing conclusions, 'Kara' was busy drawing a pen from her bag. She took it in her right hand, while with her left, she held Blake's right, palm side up and begin scribbling something on the bandage.

"Here's my number, in case you need help catching up with your work." she said with a smirk.

"I will certainly take it into consideration."

"I guess I'll see you Monday then, or maybe, sooner?" she said quirking an eyebrow.

"Maybe."

The redhead grinned and headed back out the door. Blake looked after her the entire way.

She let out a hiss once she was out of earshot.

Carly shot her a dirty look and slapped her across the back of the head.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" the genius asked as she rubbed her head.

"That was perverted and degrading."

Blake just looked at her and said, "That wasn't a 'dayum, she's hot' hiss, that was a 'dayum, that hurt like a bitch' hiss!" she exclaimed holding up her right hand. The numbers on her palm were practically embedded.

Carly cringed at the sight and immediately apologized. "Sorry. Look, to make it up to you how about we all go out to dinner tonight? My treat? Well, actually Spencer's treat, but you get the point."

Blake watched her squirm a bit before finally answering, "Sure, why not."

"Alright then, I'll text Alice later with the deets. Hey, Sam you need a ride?"

"After all this time you still find the need to ask?" responded the blond as she picked up her stuff and followed behind Carly.

As they neared the stairs they turned and gave a wave to their younger friend leaning in the doorway. Blake waved back and watched them head down the stairs.

She stayed leaning in the doorway a few more moments. "I really wish you'd stop doing that." she stated before turning around to a seemingly empty room.

"Staying in the closet, when obvious you're in there, is pretty idiotic." she continued.

"Well, it works for Jodie Foster." floated Alice's voice.

"Yeah, well she's THE Jodie Foster," pointed out Blake as she walked over to said closet, "You're not." she finished as she drew back the curtain.

Alice was standing in the middle of the small space grinning sheepishly at her sister. "Wanna join me?" she asked.

"I'd really rather not."

"Why? Closets make you feel uncomfortable?" she smirked.

"Well I wouldn't know, would I?" responded Blake as she leaned in a bit and whispered, "I've never actually been in one."

"Obviously." said Alice as she walked past her sister and into the classroom, leaving a confused Blake to ponder that for a minute.

The olive skinned teenager turned around and took a seat behind her sister's desk, while plopping her feet on the aforementioned.

"What exactly was that supposed to mean?" she asked.

The fair skinned blond, who had been shutting down the computers, turned to the girl. "You know exactly what it means."

"Ah, you were referencing the little scene that just unfolded a few minutes ago."

"Of course."

"Yes, well that was nothing compared to this morning."

"I've heard."

After about three minutes Blake spoke again, "So, was there a point to that?"

"Yes."

"Besides dissuading me from asking 'what the hell you were thinking telling people the reason for my appearance involved my bike, **without** letting me know?!?!'" she said dropping her feet to the floor and sitting up straight.

Alice just bit her lip then asked, "I'm guessing it didn't work, did it?"

All she got back was a hard stare.

"I'm sorry. But after I got home and found you passed out in the basement, I couldn't bring myself to leave you alone. So I had to cancel dinner with Spencer and I couldn't just cancel without a reason."

"I get that. I just wish you'd have talked it out with me first. Now I have to go into the garage and beat the hell out of one of my most prized possessions."

Alice turned to the girl confused, "Why?"

"Because apparently I took a header down concrete stairs while riding it. I can't risk having them over and asking why I look like shite and the bike is in pristine condition."

Alice snickered.

"What?"

"You said shite instead of shit again." she said.

"Would you rather I amend it?" asked Blake sarcastically.

"I'd rather you not curse at all." responded Alice as she walked up to the desk.

"It's not like I do it that often. It only happens when I'm stressed."

"And lately that's been every other week." pointed out the woman as she took a seat on the desk to the right of her sister.

Blake dropped her head on the desk and turned it to look up at Alice. "I'm sorry. It's just so hard to say 'no' to them when they keep bringing up the past."

Alice reaches down and starts rubbing circles on her sister's back. "I know. And you have nothing to be sorry about. If anything I should apologizing to you."

"For what?"

"For letting them sink their teeth into you in the first place. We should have left the base right after the funeral, but no, I couldn't bare to leave without saying goodbye to my goofy neighbor."

Blake hopped up on the desk beside her. "It's not your fault." she said as she leaned her head on the elder's shoulder. "I mean it's not like **I** was in any particular hurry to leave myself. The circumstances just didn't work out in our favor that day."

Alice smiles and wraps her arm around the girl placing a kiss atop her head. Just as she is about to speak again, her phone goes off. It's a text from Carly.

"Well it looks like life has decided offer a second chance."

"Yeah, well, you deserve it."

"**We** deserve it. You've been caught up in this for far too long. You need form relationships."

"I thought that's what I was just doing?"

"No, what you were doing was shameless flirting. You have on intention of calling that girl do you?" she asked.

Blake shrugs her shoulders as she gives her sister a sheepish grin.

"I know why you won't call her."

"Don't go there."

"It's been twelve years."

"Please, just let it go."

"Come on, just try? You might be pleasantly surprised. I mean give the girl a cha-"

"Just drop it! I understand your concern and I appreciate the effort, but really, please just stop. I can barely stand the knowledge of having drug her into a friendship where I'm constantly disappearing without reason. A relationship would mean full disclosure. I already feel terrible enough knowing what I put you through every time I walk out that door. Please don't ask me to willingly do that to someone else...**Any** one else."

Alice wrapped the girl in a tight embrace and said, "Okay, no more relationship talk, I promise." She held the genius at arms length. "Come on, lets go home. We have a dinner date to get ready for."


	10. A Nice Family Dinner, Sort of

A/N 1:I know it has been a long while since the last update but, as I was in the process of getting the ball rolling on this nice little filler chapter, life got in the way. There were several personal incidents; suffice it to say that muse left me high and dry for spell. By the time she came back my computer was broken and it took a while to get everything transferred to another one. Oh, well, enough excuses. That is not why you're here.

A/N 2:I would like to thank my most loyal reader, or at least my most loyal reader and reviewer, lita rocks LbC. I hope you don't hate me too much.

A/N 3: I would very much enjoy reviews but I won't demand them in exchange for chapters...yet. ; )

**And here we go...**

**Chapter 10**

"I'm beginning to think this is a clever ruse to make me lose my mind." said a clearly irritated Alice.

"Wouldn't that require you to have one?" queried Blake.

The comment caused the blond to stop and turn on a dime. "You're not funny."

"Of course not...I'm hilarious." was the smug response.

Just as Alice made to strangle her next of kin, the restaurant's front door sounded and in waltzed Carly with a slightly disheveled Spencer in tow.

"Sorry we're late. Someone was having wardrobe issues." explained Carly.

"It was me." admitted Spencer raising his hand. "Yeah, I couldn't find my good slacks. They were hanging in the closet." he shared.

"Of all places." stated Blake.

"Right? That's what I'm saying." he exclaimed, the sarcasm lost on him.

Carly, in an effort to spare her brother, pulled Spencer towards the host's podium to check on their reservations. Blake, for her part, just looked down at her feet for a moment. She then turned to her sister and pulled her in to say something.

"Please tell me that when the time comes," she began. "You will do everything in your power, to keep _that_," she gestured towards Spencer, "From reproducing."

To say the blonde's jaw dropped would be an understatement. Had they been at sea her jaw would now be comfortably residing where the Titanic once came to rest.

"Okay," was Alice's wide eyed response as she stood straight back up and turned to the Shay siblings. "Are the reservations ready? Yes, okay. Why don't we start making our way to the table." she suggested taking Spencer's arm.

"Are we holding hands so no one gets lost on the way?"

"Are we holding hands so nuh-muh he he he." mocked Alice.

Blake's response was cut short by a familiar sensation coming from her pants pocket.

"Why don't you guys go ahead. I think I'm going to go get a bit of fresh air before I head back." she said.

Alice's demeanor completely changed as her face was clouded by worry. "Are you okay? Is it the pain meds?" she asked holding the back of her hand to the teen's forehead.

"I'm fine. I just felt a little nausea, that's all." reassured the younger girl as she made towards the door.

No sooner was she out the door than her hand was retrieving her cell phone from her pocket. She barely had a chance to view the message sent to her, before the brunette felt a hand gently wrap itself around her forearm.

Blake turned and came face to face with her friend. "Carly, is everything okay?" she asked.

"Funny," began the girl. "I was just about to ask you the same thing." she finished, noticing the phone.

Blake didn't have to follow the older girl's line of vision to know what she meant.

"I'm sorry." It was all the younger girl could think of saying in.

"I'm assuming the nausea has passed."

"Yes." When Carly raised an eyebrow in response, it prompted the girl to continue. "Madrid is playing Barcelona and so I thought I'd take advantage of my time out here and look up the scores."

"And that is something I can actually believe." said Carly. And she meant it. It was a reason she could believe, she just knew there was another reason that was more accurate. However, she also knew her friend and if the younger girl hadn't felt like sharing, she was not going to prod.

"How about we head inside?" she asked instead.

Her answer came in the form of a young, violet-eyed brunette-looking striking in her juxtaposed outfit that included a black blazer and a pair of old black chucks-offering her arm to be taken.

**

* * *

They had made their way through the appetizer and main courses, now they were just waiting for their dessert to arrive.**

"So, seeing as how your plate was gleaming before the waiter took it away, I'm assuming you enjoyed what I ordered for you?" asked Alice with a mischievous grin.

Blake put on a grin of her own before responding, "I've never been one to question your taste." She gives a quick glance to Spencer who has begun to assemble all the silverware into some sort of composite. "Well, in food that is." she adds.

Spencer, noticing all the eyes at the table are on him, stops fiddling with the silverware and offers to explain. "I'm sorry, I guess the sculptor in me just couldn't contain himself."

"I think someone can relate." said Carly as she looked down to her right.

Blake followed her gaze down to a spot on the tablecloth where the genius's own ketchup covered index finger was busy doodling away.

"I didn't even realize I was doing it." she said as she took a napkin and wiped her finger clean. "They really should pick these up when they clear the table." she grumbled as she pushed the small condiment tray away from her.

Carly would've easily caught the underlying irritation in the girl's voice, had she not been enthralled by the symbol that had been printed upon the white cotton fabric.

"What is it?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, oh, I wanna see, let me see." said Spencer standing to get a better look but, knocking his knees into the table in the process. Water came pouring out of the fallen glasses and washed over the marking.

"It doesn't matter, it's just another stain on a tablecloth now." said Blake as she started to mop up some of the water with her napkin.

"I'm sorry I guess I just let my excitement get the better of me." apologized Spencer as he too began to clean up the mess.

When they had finished soaking up what they could, both artists settled back in their seats. An awkward silence descended upon the diners, while both sets of siblings sent each other looks from across the table.

Carly was sending an 'You almost had an in with your girlfriend's sister' look that was met by an 'I know! I got nervous!' look by Spencer.

Blake for her part was giving Alice a very subtle 'What do you see in him?' look, to which the blond responded with a 'Give him a chance' look.

Not being one to deny her sister anything-much-Blake conceded and turned to Spencer.

"So, uh, what's the story behind this, um, Five-Thousand Dollar sculpture of yours?" she asked, catching everyone off guard.

Spencer was shocked to say the least, but even he wasn't so dense as to miss an obvious opportunity.

"Uh, yeah, the Five-Thousand Dollar sculpture, right. Well, I was at the junk yard-I have an account there," he added, "I was taking pictures of some of the scrap pieces that were higher up, so that I could tell Marty, the new manager, to get them down for me with Big Bessy-that's the giant crane they have on site."

Blake had regretted asking the question the minute he mentioned his account, so by now she was picking at her fingernails with her steak knife.

"Anyways I'm walking around snapping shots left and right with my cell phone when, all of a sudden this slick, black limo passes by and about halfway down the street does an awesome U-turn and comes to a stop in front of the junk yard." he paused and took a breath.

"Once the limo had stopped I quickly lost interest and continued taking pictures, when all of a sudden I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn around quickly to find this huge bear of a man standing behind me. This guy was like seven foot tall and about as wide as you and Carly put side by side." by now he had everyone but the seemingly narcoleptic Blake, completely enthralled.

"I mean at this point I'm thinking 'This guy could easily bite my head off' and the creepy scar covering his scalp was not helping matters at all."

If the older girls hadn't been so immersed in Spencer's accounts of the day, they would've noticed a certain pair of violet eyes shoot up fast enough to give the owner's corneas whiplash. Of course, Blake was no amateur. She had experience with the skill she was about to employ.

"So you expect us to believe you came toe to toe with a scarred, double wide, bear-man and lived?" she asked.

"Yeah! I even snapped a picture of him on accident when I turned around!" answered Spencer excitedly as he searched his pockets.

_Brilliant; _The only word to cross Blake's mind.

"Here look." he said practically thrusting his phone in her face from the excitement.

Blake simply took the phone out of his hand and looked down at the screen. Sure enough there was a rather large man with a strange scar enveloping his bare scalp. It somewhat resembled a spider's web spreading out from the crown.

"What's wrong with his face?" asked Carly as she looked over Blake's shoulder.

"I had my flash on." he clarified as he took his phone back.

"In the middle of the day?" she asked.

"It was overcast!"

Before Spencer could argue his point any further, their server arrived with the desserts. Everyone had taken the opportunity to indulge. Well, almost everyone.

"Vanilla ice cream?" questioned Carly.

"It's the number one flavor in frozen dairy treats." responded Blake without missing a beat, "Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go wash my hands. Ketchup and ice cream don't go well together, regardless of what Spongebob my say."

With a wink, Blake put down her napkin and pushed away from the table. She made her way around several other tables, then turned left into a hallway. The brunette walked all the way to the end and entered the last door on the right.

Blake let the door close behind her and took a quick look under the stall doors. When she was sure no one was there, she latched the main door shut and jumped up on the counter. When the girl had situated herself comfortably, she pulled out her cell phone and began typing furiously.

After about a minute or so Blake calmly put her phone back, jumped off the counter, and straightened her blazer before walking to the door and pulling it open.

"Spongebob never ate ketchup with his ice cream," stated the older brunette waiting in the hallway, "they were onion slices and a peanut plant."

"You're a peanut plant."

Blake met Carly's raised eyebrow with one of her own. In a matter of seconds both had dissolved into a fit of giggles, which quickly turned into full blown laughter.

As they stood in the hallway trying to catch there breaths, Carly asked, "So, Spongebob?"

"Yeah, I don't know. Sam mentioned it in passing once and I guess it just stuck. What the hell is it anyway?" asked a slightly flushed genius.

"A yellow, talking sponge with square pants, that just so happens to live in a pineapple under the sea." stated Carly matter-of-factly.

Blake scoffed and chuckled at the idea.

Carly saw her chance and took it. "Seeing as how your bandages are still dry, I'm assuming hand washing wasn't the reason you ran from the table."

"I didn't **run** from the table, I politely excused myself."

The look on her friend's face was begging her to continue and so, "I've been getting game stats through text."

"You seem awefully interestested in the results of this particular game." She looked over at Blake who was pulling at her D&G blazer again. The site of the blazer made things click. Teenager with money and a high stakes game. "You bet money on Madrid?" whispered the older girl furiosly.

"Are you out of your little comic mind? Of course I didn't bet money on Madrid!...I bet money on Barcelona. Much better odds."

They began to make their way back to the others.

"So the whole 'hiding-the-bathroom' thing, is it because you're afraid Alice will run and tell your grandfather?"

"DUH! Do you have any idea how much he would flip?"

"Because you gambled your money on a game."

"No, because I gambled my money on Barcelona. In his eyes that would make me a traitor to the entire Adamo line, you know with us being one of the oldest families of Madrid and all."

"Didn't he already label you a traitor for using the surname Fairbanks as opposed to Adamo." pointed out Carly as they wound through the tables.

"Yes, but he recanted once he realized I really have no say on the matter, or at least not for another two years." said Blake, "You know what's ironic, I'm the first Adamo descendant-in five generations-to have actually been born in Madrid."


	11. Not All Who Plan Are Truly Prepared

**A/N:** I know it is taking me for-fracking-ever to update this thing, but life keeps happening. My sincerest apologies to all who have been waiting and cursing my existence for leaving you hanging. Trust me, I am so not doing it on purpose! But alas, on with the tale.

**Chapter 11**

Blake sat in her chair staring at the monitor before her. She had to at least look like she was doing something productive. The music blaring in her ears provided just the right amount of distraction for not her to be bored but, not nearly enough for her to burst into song in the middle of the lecture. It was Pop.

Suddenly a set of slender fingers, with slightly chewed nails and somewhat calloused knuckles, was in her face. Sam was clearly trying to get her attention.

The brunette removed her earbuds just in time to hear, "Earth to planet Derkus-Majora!"

"What's up?" she responded distractedly.

"What's up? I'll tell you what's up, the leader of the 'Lets Get the Hell Out of Here As Fast As We Can' brigade was off in some other galaxy and left the rest of the members to scatter madly with no direction."

"Sounds like a major problem." continued Blake as they walked out the door.

"These kids need a map to find the quickest exit routes to this school." stated Sam.

"There's probably an App for that."

"And if not, surely you could whip one up and sell it for the right price. Of course I'd get a share of the profits for helping you think of it."

"Of course." agreed the younger girl. Then she asked, "Where's the Carlmeister?"

Sam looked at her and answered, "Oh, I told her to go ahead to the convention center."

It was the last week in October and that meant the time for the Annual Halloween Costume Ball was at hand. The faculty believed the word 'Ball' made it a classy event; in reality it was just another school sanctioned event that threw most of the student body into a frenzy of what to wear and who to take.

"Oh. I thought the Ball was Friday?" asked the genius.

"It is but, the sooner we get the venue set up, the more time we have to focus on more important things, like what cuddly animal we get to claim our barely-there-outfit is supposed to represent." smirked the older girl.

"Ah. Right, of course. Because scantily clad girls gyrating under the disco ball is totally what the spirit of Halloween is all about." deadpanned Blake as they reached the parking lot.

"You know it." said Sam as she put her hand in the air and did a sexy little spin.

* * *

"YES!" came the cry from the front lobby area. A few moments later it was followed by Sam walking through the convention room doors wearing the grin of a thoroughly satisfied woman.

Carly looked up from a clipboard and began to walk toward her friend.

"I'm assuming Blake gave you a ride?" she wondered aloud.

Sam met her halfway and wrapped an arm around the web girl's shoulder.

"One of these days you are going to find out exactly what it feels like to have that much power between your legs. And I'm sure if you're not too tired afterwards, Blake will be more than happy to drive you around on the bike too." she grinned.

Carly turned to look at the blonde astonished. "Oh my gosh, you are such a perv." she said as she slapped the other girl's arm of her shoulder.

"I heard 'Perv'. Who's talking about me?" came the slightly accentuated voice.

"Oh I was. But don't worry, it was mainly about your linguistic skills." said Sam.

"Great." Blake turned to look at Carly, "Why do I suddenly have the urge to take a five-hour shower?"

"She has that effect on people." said the older brunette as she walked towards the empty refreshments table, Blake and Sam following closely behind.

At the table one of the underclassmen was holding to different colored fabrics, obviously for Carly to choose from. She pointed at the orange one and the girl immediately went to set out the tablecloth.

The rest of the day went pretty much in the same fashion, with the upperclassmen delegating most of the work on the younger members of the planning committee. As the evening wound down Blake helped Carly get the last of the boxes safely placed away in the storage area behind the stage. Both girls then joined Sam and sat at the edge of said stage looking at the finished product.

"Not too shabby for a day's work." marveled Sam.

"How would you know? You didn't do anything." pointed out Carly.

"I brought you guys lunch." defended Sam.

"Yes. And then you proceeded to eat it while we continued to set out the streamers." noted Blake.

"Yeah, yeah, shame on me. Now, on to more pressing matters, what do you guys think of a bunny costume?"

"Depends," said Carly, "Are we talking Anya bunny or Regina bunny?" she asked.

"Definitely Regina."

"Just make sure it isn't sixty-eight degrees outside, with a thirty percent chance that it's already raining." deadpanned Blake.

"I never should've suggested you watch that." said Carly as she tried, unsuccessfully, to keep from laughing at the look on Sam's face.

"Eh-heh. Hilarious." said Sam, the sarcasm evident in every word. She turned to Carly, "So what are **you** wearing for the Ball, Ms. Thang?"

"I am dressing as a vampire." she responded matter-of-factly.

"Ohh, kinky." voiced Sam as she wiggled her eyebrows in a salacious manner. Then she turned to the other brunette, "And what about you, Ms. Genius I.Q.?"

"Nothing." she answered with a smile.

"Whoa! Way to take it to the next level there." responded Sam with a huge grin.

Blake rolled her eyes and hopped off the stage. She took a step and turned around to face them. "What I mean is that I am not **wearing** anything to the Ball because, I am not **going** to the Ball."

"What?" snapped Carly.

Both girls turned to face their friend with raised eyebrows and questioning gazes.

Carly quickly changed her tone and joined the youngest teen on the floor. "I mean, why?"

Blake answered with a cautious hesitation, "Because I don't see the point in attending an event where there will be more rules to follow than at a Federal Penitentiary."

"Which is exactly why as soon as the clock strikes ten, everyone will be heading over to Ricky Larter's house for the after party." pointed out Sam.

Now Blake began to squirm a little under their pressing looks. Carly noticed the shift in demeanor.

"That's not the only reason, is it?" she asked crossing her arms across her chest.

The cornered girl clasped her hands together and turned a pleading pair of violet eyes towards her friends. "I got a call earlier this morning."

Carly didn't like where this conversation was headed. Blake decided there was no time like the present to finally come clean.

"There are some things that need to be taken care of in Madrid."

At least as clean as she was willing come at the moment.

"Since Alice has to work and it isn't exactly certain how long it will take,"

"You've been asked to fly out instead." finished Carly cutting her off.

"I leave tonight." came the defeated affirmation. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay." she said, looking anywhere but at the girl in front of her. "An Adamo's got to do what an Adamo's got to do, right?"

There was an awkward silence in which Carly finally brought herself to look at her technical producer. Big mistake. If disappointment had a face, it still wouldn't look half as pathetic.

"Alright, so how about we discuss this further over dinner?" she suggested, her resolve waning.

Blake looked down at her ever present watch and grimaced. "My flight leaves in two hours and I still have to get home and pack. Rain check?"

"Always." answered Carly bitterly.

Blake and Sam exchanged goodbyes before the olive skinned girl turned back to Carly and offered a farewell. Carly didn't answer, her resolve reanimated like a nasty, relentless zombie.

Or so she thought. The minute Blake reached the doors and picked up her helmet, Carly dropped her arms and called out, "Wait!"

Blake turned around just in time to have the older girl wrap her in a tight embrace. After several seconds they finally pulled apart.

"Just be careful, okay."

"Always."

Carly looked at the scar that now permanently split her friend's eyebrow and then at her violet eyes, "Right. I'll see you when you get back?"

"Count on it."

Several farewells and another hug later, Blake walked out the center doors and Carly began to make her way back towards the stage.

The entire time this exchange had been occurring, Sam couldn't help but feel like she was looking in on what should've been a private moment.

* * *

The room was currently void of any noise, other than breathing. This made the sound of the clasps on the suitcase closing even more unbearably loud than necessary.

Alice watched from the living room couch as Blake closed the door to her room behind her and began to make her way down the hallway. The young woman got to her feet and enveloped the girl in yet another hug.

"I am coming back, you know." rose the muffled response from her shoulder.

Alice pulled away and held her sister at arm's length. "I know. I just don't know when and would rather O.D. on sister fluff, than have to face withdrawals while you're halfway across the globe."

"I'm sure Spencer is just as huggable as any other human." grinned Blake.

"Do you need me to drop you off at the airport?"

Blake raised an eyebrow and gave her a pointed look.

"I meant metaphorically, you know. A cover story." threw back Alice.

"Sure. If we can't actually live like the average pair of siblings, we can at least lie for each other like them." said Blake from the front door.

"Say hi to Grampa and Nani for me."

"Will do...Metaphorically."

Alice couldn't stop the grin brought to her face by that comment, even if its implications were tearing her apart inside.

* * *

Carly and Sam decided to go ahead and leave once Blake had gone. So both girls were conveniently sitting on Carly's couch when an extremely loud shriek came from across the hallway. Both girls looked at each other and then tripped over one another to get to the door.

Once in the hallway they noticed Mrs. Benson's door was wide open. They began to inch towards the single woman's home with trepidation. Of all the things that had been going through the girls' minds, what they saw when they reached the entrance was definitely not one of them.


	12. Catching Up And Getting Caught

**Chapter 12**

"Oh My Gosh!"

That was the greeting Spencer got when the elevator doors opened up on the first floor of his apartment. Needless to say, confusion took hold momentarily. It wasn't until a set of loud squeals hit his ears that Spencer realized it was the girls making all these strange sounds.

He let the grocery bag fall to the floor, as he quickly ran in the direction of the noise. The second he set foot in Mrs. Benson's apartment, his eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open.

Soon enough his voice joined the others as he chorused, "Oh My Gosh!"

There was another round of shrieks and squeals before Mrs. Benson finally decided to speak.

"Oh somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming."

Everyone shared a look, silently passing the task from one to the other.

"I SAID SOMEBODY PINCH ME!...Ow!"

Sam stood behind the older woman with a fire poker in hand. "Yep, it's real."

Carly took the opportunity to voice the question everyone was dying to have answered, "What in the world are you doing here?"

Freddie Benson was more than happy to provide an answer. "Well, as it turns out T.E. Prep isn't all it's cracked up to be and I figured, what's the point in being miserable until Christmas."

"Well it's great to have you back Fredwad." stated Sam.

"Ahhh. Did you miss me?" he asked

"Like a girl misses a stubborn pimple. Did you?"

"You wish."

"In your dreams."

"More like nightmares."

"Like the ones your face inspires in teenager girls worldwide?"

Carly draped an arm around each of her friends, "Now was that as good for you, as it was for me?"

* * *

The rest of the day was spent over at Mrs. Benson's listening to Freddie recount his days at T.E. Prep. The conversation ceased when his mother offered to make a nice fish loaf for them all.

"Actually, I think we'll pass." started Sam.

"Yes, this is Freddie's first night back and I'm sure you'd like to have a nice family dinner. Alone." finished Spencer.

"Oh, well thank you. That's very nice of you." said Mrs. Benson.

"Believe me Mrs. Benson, the pleasure is all ours." said Carly with a smile.

"Yes, very thoughtful." deadpanned Freddie. "I'll walk you guys out."

He led them to the door and they said their good-nights. As the girls reached Carly's door, Freddie had a sudden thought.

"Oh, and guys I'm sorry about not writing back." he called out.

Both girls turned to look at him with furrowed brows.

"You know, e-mails. I'm sure you must have sent dozens, but I was kept so busy with work I never had a chance to look at anything other than my mother's hand-written letters." he continued.

The girls smiled and nodded.

"Anyways, I don't have access to that address anymore but, now that I'm here, you two can just fill me in yourselves, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Totally."

"Night." he said, stepping back into his apartment.

"Night." came the unison response from the girls.

No sooner had they closed the door in front of them, than Sam turned to Carly.

"You send anything?"

"Maybe. You?"

"You kidding?"

Carly turned and started making her way to the kitchen in silence. Sam followed and took a seat at the counter.

"So..." started Sam.

"So..." responded Carly from the fridge.

"I noticed you didn't bring it up."

"I noticed you didn't try to rectify it."

Both girls shared a look, before Carly finally said, "So which one of us is going to tell him?"

"I think you should. She is your childhood friend of a lifetime."

"But it was your idea to have her fill in for Freddie."

"An idea that you fully agreed with!"

"Only to keep the show from fading into obscurity!"

"I have no idea what that means!"

They both stopped and turned to the living room. Standing in front of the elevator was a stock-still Spencer.

"Hey." he said lamely.

"Hey." they responded in unison.

"I, um, couldn't help but overhear your dilemma. If you want I could have a talk with him." he offered quietly.

Carly shook her head in the negative. "Thank you, but no. This is something we have to tell him ourselves."

"Oh thank God!" he exclaimed. "That was a close one. I only offered because as your older brother it's the kind of thing that's expected of me but, honestly, whoa! That is one conversation I did not look forward to having. I mean how would I even start, 'Hey, Freddie, while you were gone we kept our show going by replacing you with a younger, wittier, more intelligent, female version of you.' Talk about awkward."

At that moment the elevator arrived and opened. Spencer stepped in and said, "Well, I gotta go, but, good luck with that."

As the elevator doors closed Carly turned to Sam, "So..."

"I like his method. Short, sweet, and to the point."

Carly gave her a pointed look.

"Well, two out of three anyways." she amended.

"We should've just told him while he was here." said Carly as she made her way up the stairs.

"How were we supposed to bring it up? 'Oh, hey you remember that project the three of us were involved in,"

"Sam,"

"You know the one. That little one, where you would say the 'three', the 'two', but not the 'one'?"

"Sam,"

"The one you were known to obsess and get a little possessive over."

"I get it. It won't be easy but, we have to do it anyways. And soon before-"

"It's gone! It's gone! Carly! Sam! Spencer! Anybody! It's gone!" Freddie's frantic words were the first thing heard immediately after the crash of the door.

"Is it just me or did you get a slightly vague sense of deja-vu just then?" asked Carly before they flew back down the stairs.

As they came to the landing she asked, "Is everything okay?"

"No! We've been hacked!" screamed a furious looking Freddie.

"What are you talking about you walking kumquat?" asked Sam.

He ran over to the computer on the counter. "The iCarly site. I can't get into the main site page through the domain registrar. Someone bought out iCarly and changed the main password to it! We no longer have access to iCarly dot com!"

Sam and Carly shared a look that screamed 'Too late.' It would have been obvious to spot there was something amiss, if Freddie hadn't been busy having a minor mental meltdown.

"I haven't even gone to the actual site." He brought up the browser and began to type.

At the sound of their friend's voice both girls turned back around.

"I'm afraid of what I'm going to- Oh." he said coming up short as the site filled the screen. "That actually looks good...really good...amazing." He turned to face the girls, "What aren't you telling me?"

"Well..."

* * *

Carly gave herself a quick once over in the mirror, "Good, now I just need my..." She looked around her room for something, "There, they are," she stated triumphantly as she found her fangs.

Once they were in she went downstairs, just in time to answer the door. On the other side was a barely clothed Sam with bunny ears.

"So, do I look like an authentic bunny or what?" she asked as she walked into the apartment.

"Oh, you look like an authentic 'bunny' alright." answered Carly with a smirk.

"And you, Madame of the Night, look absolutely delectable." said the blond with a wink.

Carly pulled a face as Sam walked past her and towards the kitchen. "Only you Sam, could offer a sincere complement that would make me want to take a three-hour-shower."

"That bothered, huh?" queried Sam with a smirk.

"That dirty." deadpanned Carly with a corresponding grimace.

"I heard 'dirty,' who's talking about Sam?" asked Freddie as he walked through the still open front door. He stopped short when he finally caught a glimpse of the insult's recipient.

"Careful Freddie, no one here is CPR Certified." whispered Carly as she passed the boy on her way to close the door.

Freddie blinked a couple of times once he realized he had been spoken too, "Wha- Huh?"

"In case you swallow your tongue." teased Carly.


End file.
